Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
by reinforced hell
Summary: In which Harry gains an unusual familiar. [rating may go up]
1. Prologue

Prologue

It was a curious, and determined Harry Potter that went back to the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets. He had wanted to explore the chamber for a while now, but at the end of last year with so many eyes upon him.

So, two weeks into his third year, when he managed some sort of private from everyone, he slipped off 'to the loo'. Well, at least he wasn't lying when he said he was going to the loo.

Harry opened the entrance easily, having no pressure put on him to save someone, and practice had done wonders for the fluidity at which he could speak the 'noble' language of the serpents. The sink, well, sank into the ground to reveal the slide like tunnel that was hidden beneath at his spoken serpentine command.

He stared at the darkness of the tunnel incredulously; honestly, you'd think 'The Great Salazar Slytherin' wouldn't stoop low enough to consider this method of travel for his 'Inner Sanctum.' No, there must be something more dignified for the supposed character of Slytherin. Harry thought over the problem looking at the hole in the floor. /* Stairs? */ he said in the same language as before to open the chamber. His hopes were dashed away as the possible stairs refused to magically * wink wink * appear. It was probably just only supposed to be his familiar's entrance. He would have to look into the possibility of more entrances.

Without much further delay, Harry promptly jumped into the large pipe. The end of which looked exactly as he had left it. He didn't doddle taking in the look of the surroundings, though; he quickly walked on to the large door he remembered from before.

The main chamber - Harry refused to believe this to be the only one, it wouldn't fit in with Slytherin's image - was not like the way he had expected. Instead of finding an at all degraded serpent where it was slain, he found that the serpent didn't appear at all diminished in its state. Other than some hardened blood about, there were no signs indicating that the 'poor' beast had been dead for long. Even then, dried blood does not mean it makes it _this_ old of a hunt.

He looked at the beast and came up short as to what to do with her corpse. It would be difficult to move her as is, what with her still-active magic resistance. Add to that the fact that the snake probably weighs more than a few tonne. Then there is the problem of cutting it into smaller pieces, if he chose that route, not only would cutting it up take a serious amount of time, but it would chew through any tools he could think to use or have access to, _and_ he has no idea what's what dealing with the beast's corpse. He would probably do it all wrong and ruin anything of value.

Harry walked along the walls, looking for something. He didn't know what he was searching for, but he still went along with his almost instinctive feeling to look; his instincts had never led him astray before. He paused, and thought about that one. Perhaps he should have taken Divination after all. maybe he could train this Seer-like ability. He tossed the idea, after-all, when he asked about the subject, most everyone said the teacher was a fraud. He'd rather not have his 'gift' (if he had one, he added mentally) suffer because of a fraud.

He found it! Harry didn't know he was looking for it, but he knew that he found it. Therein the form of a disfigured-looking packman, a piece of the wall was protruding slightly from the face of the wall. It was only slightly raised, and he knew that he would have missed it were it not that he stopped momentarily. He wondered what he should do with it. He tried first with the obvious choice of hissing at it with parseltongue, a simple phrase of /* I see you! */. It had no effect. Then came the other choice of pushing on it.

Wary from the events of the year previous, he looked for something other than his hand to touch the object. He found it in the form of a hastily transfigured long wooden pole from a rock.

He was right to use the pole because as soon as he touched the figure with the pole, green tendrils spat out of the wall and wrapped around the stick. The green tendrils then turned red and makes the pole. Harry shuddered to think of what would happen if it were anything of his body parts. It would have definitely been painful, but it would not be anything he didn't have before. Honestly he has had to _regrow_ bones before! Don't let anyone tell you that is less painful than mending. /* Impressive, */ whispered a voice from (beyond?) the wall. /* to think of using something other than magic or your own… */ the voice paused, then, /*I had not thought of that. For that alone, you may pass this obstruction, using such cunning…*/

/*Who's there?*/ Harry asked. The voice chuckled, in a distinct snake-ish way.

/*Why don't you come and see?*/ The wall before him disappeared to show a long hallway. a green vine-like substance was hanging from the roof, and along the walls. They looked like the ame serpent green as the tendrils from before.

Still wary of the green… stuff, Harry's grip on his already readied wand grew tighter. Cautiously, with at least an eye on the toxic-looking vines, he made his way ahead. Somehow, he knew the vines would not attack him, but tell that to his frazzled nerves! It took awhile through the winding hall, and he had spotted a few traps that looked deactivate along the way, before he had met the sight of a medium sized hall with four caskets raised upon a platform. The middle, between the casks at 90° intervals, was a pillar made of what appeared to be made of obsidian. Atop the pillar were four gems, placed in a way so they were aligned with their respective caskets. One was a ruby, embedded into the edge of the pillar, as were the rest. Opposite the ruby was an emerald, and 90° on either side were other gems. One was a topaz, and opposite the topaz was a lapis lazuli. Of course to Harry, the last two gems just looked like blue and yellow stones to him.

"Are you done ogling the jewelry yet?" Drawled a voice not too unlike a certain potions master he knew. He jumped and spun around to face the sight of four almost translucent people he would not soon forget. His eyes were wide, and he couldn't seem to get any words to his brain in order to speak.

"I think you broke him, Sal," commented the other male of the four, with a strong, deep voice. Harry noted the twitch of the first man's eye. He made a mental note to not call the man that name.

The first woman ignored them, in favour of paying attention to the very scrawny looking boy. She was the tall blonde of the two, with a sor of dreamy look about her. She said lightly, "Hello, dear. My name is Rowena Ravenclaw." It was said over and as the kind-looking muscular type woman lost all pretense of kindness when she gave a fierce glare at the two men. They both flinched slightly at the glare directed to them. The second woman struck Harry as a Mrs. Weasley type. Rowena reminded Harry faintly about a certain Ravenclaw 2nd year. Her name escaped him, but still. He made a mental note to get to know other people in the school. It would probably help him have connections.

Harry had began to visit the founder's resting place as often as he could. He needed it to hide away from all that was happening that year. What with the teacher's concerned looks, being followed by people, and needing to get away from his fame.

The founders and he talked of many subjects, from anything like his current problems, 'current' history, and such things. The founders talked of their lives, and Harry informed them of what the public thought of them. Sometimes he would take his work there, and they would kindly lend a hand to his education.

Eventually the simple explanations evolved to include full lessons taught by the founders. They would each teach him their various specialties, from beginner onward. Harry had a sneaky suspicion that the founders loved having another pupil around.

Harry especially liked Rowena and her out-of-the-box thinking. She helped him with his Runes, taught him Archery, and more about being a Seer. It was Salazar "don't call me Sal" Slytherin that would teach him Arithmancy, a lot better than the current Arithmancy professor, thank you. Helga Hufflepuff would teach him Healing and Care of Creatures. Then there was Godric Gryffindor. He would teach Harry Herbology, surprisingly, how to properly handle a blade, and Magical Defense. After hearing about the Dementors hanging about the school, the first thing he did was teach him the Patronus Charm. Harry was surprised the Dementors have been around this long, and the ministry hadn't seen the foolishness of having dementors around children.

At first Harry was worried that he wouldn't be able to learn anything because he wouldn't be around all that often, and couldn't stay long. They solved the problem by making it so that time… worked differently in the Chamber. Time was experienced much quicker inside the room compared to outside, but the effects such as hunger, age and whatnot do not apply. He had spent weeks at a time in the founders presence while outside only a few hours passed.

It was very late when the subject of familiars was brought up. Salazar was understandably upset when Harry mentioned that he kinda killed his familiar, and why. That was how the subject was brought up, Salazar asking after his familiar 'Sally'.

Harry had asked how they would get a familiar in the first place because they all had one, and in some cases they were quite rare. For example in the case of Dumbledore, Salazar, or even Voldemort had his magical beaumuse. They told him, and taught him of a certain ritual to get the familiar that would best, or in cases perfectly, fit their summoner (read: Master). They taught him all of the necessary spells and enchantments to connect with them, permanently.

That was why Harry Potter found himself in the Room of Requirement, originally the Ritual Room, to set up his familiar summoning ritual. The founders said that he had to be alone, because any other interference would be detrimental to his health.

A little blood spilled here, some odd and exotic items and gems there, and some long-winded chanting sessions later brought forth a bright multicolored light.

 **Elsewhere**

The Drone jerked back away from the light that appeared in its path. It wasn't out of fear, but surprise. It knew that his was far above its level of problem solving skill, so it impressed a query upon the Overmind as to what to do. The order came for it to investigate the oddity. Cautiously the Drone touched the disturbance. That was when the Drone lost connection with the Hivemind and Overmind.

 **End Prologue**


	2. Chapter 1: An Unusual Familiar

Chapter 1

The light faded gradually, and Harry took his first look at his soon-to-be familiar. What he saw made him dumbfounded. The - thing - had two wing like appendages, and an exoskeleton. It had spiny 'legs', and two wicked-looking crab-like claws for pincers. Harry didn't really trust the vacant look in the thing's eyes. So, without much further gawking, Harry performed the necessary spells to make the thing his familiar.

As soon as the ritual was completed, Harry's memory was assaulted with the knowledge of the Swarm. Or, at least, the knowledge the Drone's genetic code held. He was assaulted of what this Drone could do at that time.

"Yes!" Harry exclaimed, because this meant many things. Harry, who never had a family. Harry, who's life was always at stake. Harry, who'd always been kept in the dark concerning matters. Well, he'd just found a possible fix to _all_ of those issues.

Harry's eyes widened, though, when he wondered how exactly he would be able to bring the Drone out of the castle. As if sensing his need (Harry wouldn't put it past the room), a door appeared opposite the one he walked through to get in. Harry walked over to it and opened it, the Drone faithfully following him like a lost puppy.

Harry went through the door with a Happy smile on his face. He might not have had family in the traditional sense, but he will have the Swarm; he will gain a different type of family.

Through the door Harry found himself facing the Forbidden Forest. It would be perfect for hiding his familiar. Harry was quite glad that it was quite early in the morning, and he could easily sneak his familiar out into the forest. He has his wand ready, in case the professors wished to patrol the grounds. Hagrid had been known to venture into the forest on occasion at such odd hours.

Speaking of Hagrid, Harry wondered how he would respond to Harry's familiar. 'He would probably love them,' he figured. Honestly, the man wanted to raise a bloody _dragon_ as a pet. Then there was the Fluffy affair… yeah, Hagrid would be ecstatic. Though, lord knew how well the man could keep a secret. Harry adored the man, but he couldn't keep a secret to save his life, unfortunately.

Harry had been walking for about two hours before he supposed it was far enough from the castle to be away from prying eyes. He needed to make the clearing he had found a lot bigger than it was, Honestly, he didn't know if he _could_ call it a clearing, it was just a space between the trees, really. To be fair, the spacing between trees had become few and far between as time went on; it gave the effect of making small spaces look like clearings.

Harry knew that his Drone could, through metamorphosis, become something else. He knew that it could become a Hatchery, though he didn't know exactly how. He figured that he could let the DNA do its job.

Harry wondered on how exactly he should go about getting the Hatchery going, sense he didn't know what was required to make one.

Like magic *cough cough*, his - instinct? - answered. It turned out that he needed 300 minerals and 2 hours to turn the Drone into a Hatchery. Whatever minerals were. He hopped that the Swarm could live off of something other than 'minerals'. After all, they were biological, were they not?

He asked himself what he could substitute the 'minerals' for. And, like before, his instincts answered him. Harry was told by something within him that he could use 'biomass' in the minerals' place. He figured that to mean anything biological. Now all he needed was exact numbers and figures. How much biomass equaled to one mineral? And again his half-question was answered. One mineral equaled five units of biomass, one hundred milliliters of water and, if the biomass was not already broken down, and extra half time. So, using some simple math, Harry figured out that the Hatchery that would take three-hundred minerals and two hours, would take thirty liters of water, and fifteen-hundred units of biomass. Joy.

With that in mind, Harry set about felling the trees where he planned on placing his Hatchery. He took out his wand and, through liberal use of the cutting cuse and levitation charm, began moving the trees where he needed them in a stack. The Drone sensed the work to be done, and it set about contributing to this task, knowing it would need the room for what the Overmind had planned.

Harry was pleasantly surprised the 'little' Drone had started in on helping. He was also surprised that the 'little' Drone could be so effective in its task. In some ways, it was more so than magic. Whereas he would take a few cutting curses - curses specifically made to cut things like wood or metal - the Drone only needed to spray some kind of acid on the base of the tree to make it fall. Where Harry's levitation charm tool a lot of concentration to keep his reduced logs afloat and place them, the Drone looked right at place moving its bigger logs. Harry wanted to facepalm for his stupidity; honestly, weren't _Drones_ supposed to be _workers_? No wonder why it happened to be more effective than magic, it was evolved for this work!

When Harry deemed the amount of wood enough for now, he stopped, as did the Drone, and told the Drone to initiate its metamorphosis into a Hatchery structure. It complied with the verbal command, and it went to the pile of slightly magical-resistant wood to start its process. It went to the top of the pile, and started in on spraying some of its acid on the woods. then, it started absorbing the decomposed woods to consume it. As it ate, it grew in size to that comparable to a large grizzly bear. After it reached such a size, with fat sacks full of lord knew what that took up most of the space, it looked like it, itself, melted into a fleshy paste that covered the entirety of the large pile of wood. Harry was not finished yet, though, as the Hatchery still needed water to continue. He used the Augumentia Charm so that the Hatchery could get the required thirty liters of water.

Afterward Harry left the - egg alone, knowing it would be only three hours before it finished with its cocoon state and revealed its finished product.

Harry did not have idle hands as he waited, though. Instead, he practiced things he was taught by the founders. He placed a few protections on the soon-to-be Hatchery, such as a version of the Protego Charm; instead of keeping it active-on-wand, like the original, it acts much like a ward, in that it was inactive most of the time until something attached. Then, it would show itself to shield. It took a good while to set up, though, which was why most didn't use such things, and that it only truly protected against physical attacks. A magical attack would waken it much more quickly before giving out, but for either case, Harry would be notified. Harry also would have the option to 're-charge' the 'ward', but only if he had direct contact with it. Something that set it apart from a ward; a ward didn't need to be recharged by a magical, because it wither recharged passively by nature or ley lines (like Hogwarts) or wasn't recharged ever; a ward sometimes had only a set amount of power before falling. The only notable exception to these rules of distinction were blood wards.

A side-effect of having used the magical trees as a base for their biomass, the Hatchery had a natural resistance against magical attack; one of the reasons for why Harry's cutting curses and levitation charms were weak or sometimes ineffective. So when Harry cast the (in essence) a variation of the Impervious Charm, its first reaction was to resist _any_ magic effecting it. But then, it took in the intent of such magic on it, and let it be. It even went as far as to integrate partially with the charm. After-all it would be foolish to turn down an extra protection in the event of an attack of physical means.

Neither the Hivemind, the Hatchery, nor Harry knew of the magical resistance or naturally opening up to receive protection. Harry had felt -something fighting him, at first, but he waved that off as his inexperience.

After he finished with all of his modifications to his Hatchery, he went about felling more trees for future use. He had a feeling he'll need the extra biomass for startup.

Harry had a feeling that the Hatchery was almost complete, and sat atop of a log to watch the final parts of the process. Indeed, not two minutes later, during which time Harry had been interested-ly watching the Hatchery-cocoon, the membrane of the cocoon burst open, and a sludge-like substance was quickly made into a pink fleshy material attached to the base of the Hatchery. It then slowly grew outward.

Harry, being of the curious sort, went up to it and experimentally touched it. It felt to him like a fleshy sponge. [What is this?] he mentally asked; it was to no-one in particular, but it was his thought, so it must've been to himself.

Harry jumped in surprise when a young voice - one not his own - replied in _his_ head, [that is the Creep, it will feed the Zerg.]

[How are you speaking to me? Who are you?] Harry demanded; he did _not_ like things being in _his_ head that he did not let in.

[We are the Hivemind: The Hatchery, three Larva, and the Overmind,] it answered.

[Overmind?]

[You, the hope of the Zerg. You, the Zerg's will.] Yeah, that wasn't a daunting task _at all_. Harry sighed; this could only have happened to him. Then Harry noticed the scurrying things by the Hatchery, that broke him out of thought of self-pity. He went to the closest one, to take a closer look.

[What are they?] He asked the Hivemind. Instead of answering 'verbally', the Hivemind did something along the lines of presenting an idea or information to his brain. Memories, more like. Harry realized that it probably was not his instincts that knew how to place the building, or how to order the construction of it, nor what was required for it.

The memory presented itself, or was represented as, stats for the creature in front of him:

Larva:

Hit points: 25

Armor: 10

Growth Time: 1/11 min, max 3/Hatchery

Harry thought the thought sharing, and sharing was pretty cool, but sort of invasive. Oh, well, nothing to be done about it. Back to the Larva, it had pincers at the front of it, ten legs, five on each side, and he could clearly see that it was, indeed, armored. Harry thought he was turning into a mini Hagrid, because he thought they looked cute; the Larva was about as big as a dog. That was to say, it was up to Harry's thighs. Granted, Harry wasn't all that tall himself at the age of thirteen.

The Larva sensed the Overmind close by, and it came a little closer to the Overmind to gain his attentions. It gave a happy little squeal when the Overmind pet it. The other two Larva came over as well, to gain some affection. Harry happily complied.

When Harry thought he had given enough attentions to the Larva, he gave the order for them all to morph into Drones. Harry watched interested as the Larva curled in on themselves, and made a tight ball. Then he watched as the Creep cam up and surrounded the three. A tendril, or vein it looked like, grew from the creep, from the Hatchery to the Larva-turned-cocoon. Harry figured that it would bring material to the growing Drones.

Speaking of Drones, Harry wondered exactly what was needed to make one, as he just willy-nilly ordered the morph of three. He needn't wonder long, as he was answered almost as soon as he needed the information.

Drone: 

250 units of Biomass

5000 mL of water

1 Psi Supply

40 HP

5 Ground Attack

20 min. Morph Time

After 'remembering' the stats of the Drone, he wondered if the Hatchery had enough of the required materials to grow the Drones. [The process would not be started if we did not have enough supplies.] The Hivemind was slightly creepy to Harry, considering that it would have to have actively read his thought to answer him in the way it did.

[What are we currently at? Resource wise, I mean.] Harry queried. Again, instead of thought-speech, as Harry had dubbed it, He received specifics.

Resources:

Minerals = 0

Biomass = 1 500 / 5000 UNITs

Water = 70 000 / 1 000 000 mL

Psi Supply = 0+3/15 units

Harry, happy with what he wanted to know, watched the cocoon go about its change for a time. Then, he decided to check out the interior of the Hatchery. It _did_ look like someone/thing could enter it, and he was confident that the Zerg would never harm him. He walked up to one of the entrances of the Hartchery, of which looked like a hexagon based fleshy pyramid. It had a hard exoskeleton like appearance for what Harry assumed was for structural integrity. The tunnels, as mention of before, were at each point of the hexagon leading in. The top of the Hatchery looked like a mouth of some sort, as the 'mouth' opened occasionally. Harry assumed it was there for the building to breathe, seeing as the building was a living thing.

The inside of the tunnel was dark, even with the tip of his wand lit up; it looked like the walls almost _absorbed_ the light, rather than reflect it. As he explored the interior of the Hatchery, he was slowly fed information about things the Hatchery and the Drones knew about the arguably most important building the Zerg had.

Harry eventually found his way to the 'center' of the building, wearing there was a large vat of green, softly glowing acid. The pool was underneath the opening in the ceiling at the top of the Hatchery. If it weren't for the bright light emitted from his wand, Harry would have noticed the occasional moonlight let in by said opening. He instinctively knew not to touch the green liquid inside the pit, he knew that it would be a very bad idea to handle it.

Having seen everything he wanted to see, he left the interior of the Hatchery. Harry could see a single Larva, signifying that he had taken longer than eleven minutes from the time of ordering the production of three Drone to getting back out of the Hatchery. In fact, Harry could _tell_ that the Drones were almost ready. Harry decided to take a seat on the wooden log he had earlier and watch the final stages.

It truly did fascinate Harry; he was happy he had such a unique familiar. He could see the way the ministry would react, though, as he had seen all too well their incompetence regarding the Chamber incident the previous year.

The Narrator got off-track.

The Drones emerged from the egg/cocoons, but unlike when the Hatchery returned from such a state, the leftover of the membrane and fluid was absorbed by the pink floor of hat Harry knew to be Creep. The Creep basically fed the Zerg, by spreading out nutrients for when something like a cocoon needed it to conduct a morph, or if things like the Drones needed to eat it was there for them. There was also a vein-like network within for various fluids to pass through. It had nerves throughout it so that the Zerg had a greater spatial awareness of things on the Creep.

Harry mentally ordered the new Droned to collect the resources he had gathered earlier and integrate them into the Hatchery's stockpile of 'liquified' assets. Harry would have to find a way to see about getting some water other than rain. If they couldn't find a feasible method of collecting water without much dependence on weather, then they would have to develop some ways of creating mass storage.

Harry knew that either way he would need at least _some_ way of storing things, considering that the Zerg's main form of 'energy' generation was for them to collect minerals, and they were using a less effective method of biomass and water. It would stand to reason that the Zerg didn't really develop a designated use of holding water. Minerals and biomass, yes, water, not so much.

He'll have to go through that Floo when he got to it.

Harry knew that the Acromantula were all over the forest, and he also knew that there were all other types of Dark creatures. Some, Harry knew, would probably be able to rival that of the Acromantulas, even though the Acromantula had itself a nice cozy nest. Harry knew Ron still had nightmares about the night they were chased out of the forest by the hungry overgrown spiders. He shuddered to think of what would happen to his familiars if they were found in such a vulnerable state. This led Harry to believe that he needed a way to protect the… colony? Well, the Zerg did kinda remind him of ants. Harry knew that ants had soldiers and workers, so… he figured that having a basic - unit - to defend the colony while he wasn't there was prudent.

Harry sighed; there was so much to do, and so little time. Speaking of time, from what he could tell by the now-rising sun, Ron would be woken 'soon'. Harry looked at the Hatchery, and the busy workers one last time before walking away. He wished he had brought a broom or something so that he could get back either unnoticed or faster or both.

He did, on the way, think of a feasible order to give to his familiars, so he gave it, [Create Drones until you either run out of water, or you have a collective of fifteen.] He received confirmation from the Hivemind, and he smiled to himself, continuing on his long trek. Harry sighed when he realized he would probably only just make it to lunch at the rate he was walking.


	3. Chapter 2: Questioning

Harry walked into Hogwarts' Entrance Hall with a head full of ideas. So preoccupied was he, that he walked right into Professor McGonagall. "Mr. Potter! Please watch where you are walking. Though, I must say it is lucky running into you, Mr. Potter. I must ask; where have you been? Your friend Mr. Weasley mentioned that he could not find you when he looked," she spoke with her usual stern tone, but when Harry looked closely at her, he noticed her normally stern face had a few receding worry-lines as she talked. Though, concern was still present when she did stop speaking.

Harry realized he hadn't replied yet, and blushed at the expectant look he professor had. "Err, I just went for a walk, to clear my head this morning." Harry tried to smile reassuringly, but it most likely came out as sheepish. "I didn't want to wake anyone because I knew that it _was_ pretty early, but I couldn't go back to sleep - I really tried! - and I was too fidgety to read , so…" He left the sentence hang. Then, to fill the silence of Professor McGonagall still looking at him he said quietly, "I just didn't want to be a bother."

Professor McGonagall internally smiled at her favorite student. He was such a shy, humble and polite boy. Not to say that he wasn't capable, oh no. The boy had proved to be quite courageous indeed. She remembered two years ago, the boy and his two friends had foolishly, but selflessly protected a priceless magical artifact from getting into the wrong hands. Then there was last year. She couldn't even begin to imagine how a twelve-year-old could stand a chance against something most fully trained wizards found ' _difficulty_ ' doing. He went up against a monster alone, and came out saving an eleven-year-old's life.

Still, Minerva's instincts screamed at her to protect the seemingly small and fragile boy. She couldn't help but worry for the boy, and protect him from anything and anyone that would dare hurt him. If she could, she would just wrap him up in muggle bubble wrap to keep him safe. Metaphorically speaking, of course, there were much better magical ways that bubble wrap.

She also knew that many a witch would fully agree with her.

Again, the Narrator got a little off track.

"Mr. Potter, the headmaster would like to see you in his office after you finish you lunch. You are no doubt quite hungry after going for your walk and not having any breakfast." She frowned at his too-small frame during the last part, though Harry mistook it as chastising him for skill breakfast. In a way, though, it was.

Harry nodded dutifully, and the professor, satisfied, walked away. After she walked off, he went to the Great Hall. He was happy with his estimation of being close to lunch time. Thankfully, for his hungry stomach, the Great Hall was just filling for the weekend lunch.

Harry was met with a quite inquisitive Hermione and Ron at the Gryffindor table ("Harry, where _have_ you been?!" "Hey, mate, where've you been?"), to which he gave the same story to them as he did to Professor McGonagall. Harry had a feeling that he'll have to have more explanation ready in the near future. He also had a feeling that it wouldn't be received all too well with some. The best part about it was, it wasn't exactly lying when he gave his story. He _did_ go for a walk after-all. He just omitted the fact of what exactly he did _during_ the walk.

Harry's friends nodded at the appropriate points in the story, and made the expected responses and comments. By the time lunch was over Harry's friends' curiosity was sated, as well as the three's hunger. Harry had caught Hermione's approving gaze when he had piled food on his plate.

Harry knew he was expected to be in the headmaster's office, and so he had said farewell to his friends. They, of course, wondered where he was going. "Harry, mate, where are you going? We haven't seen you _all day_ and you're disappearing _again?"_ Ron asked, exasperated. Hermione nodded in agreement to his words, but added in her own thoughts of the matter.

"And you've been doing that often, don't think I haven't noticed! Where could you possibly be going without us?"

Harry replied, "Guys, I'm just going to the headmaster's office. Dumbledore asked to meet with me." He added the last at Ron's puzzled expression.

"Professor Dumbledore, Harry. I hope you aren't in any trouble?" Hermione's predictable worry, and absentminded correction, brought a smile to Harry's face. Even after three-ish years, it was still pretty new to him to have people worried about him. He knew the Dursleys wouldn't want to kill him, but he was pretty sure they didn't care whether he _did_ die. In fact, he thought that they were likely to hold a party that same day.

"I'm sure I'll be fine, Hermione." It had almost became a ritual for them: Hermione would worry, then Harry would reassure her-

"Yeah, 'moine, he'll be alright. C'mon," - then Ron would agree with him and go off with Hermione to do lord knew what whenever he was called to the headmaster's office.

Harry's smile widened after he had nodded to the two and turned away. Harry got to the stone statue, went to the headmaster's office. Harry stared at the stone statue, went to the opposite side of the hall, and promptly sat down; he waited. He figured that, no, he won't do the guessing game. If the headmaster wanted to speak with him, then either he could extend to courtesy of coming to get him, tell him the password, or to have someone escort to the office that _did_ know the password. It was common courtesy, and this was his way of a silent protest.

So he sat there, cross-legged in the lotus position, with his back straight up against the wall. He stared blankly at the gargoyle in front of him, as his mind was elsewhere, figuratively speaking. He was having a chat with his familiar while he waited. He did not miss the difference that his familiar (the Hivemind) had since last they 'spoke'. Originally the Hivemind, when it first 'talked', in English thought, it 'sounded' young for lack of a better word. Now, it sounded more like it had an older, perhaps teenager 'tone' to it. It also felt more powerful, and intelligent. It seemed to Harry that as the Swarm grew, it became more and more experienced and Intelligent.

True that this was only a few hours after he had first 'talked' to it, and he had little experience to base this observation off of, but there _was_ the fact that as soon as his one Drone became _more_ , than he had established an English connection, instead of the 'primitive' feelings of how to do things like earlier. Now he can get full-on explanation for _why_ or _how_ to do things. He could even get memories and statistical analysis from the Hivemind about things the Hivemind knew.

Harry wondered of the complexity the Zerg's 'mental network' might reach. Honestly, if it kept developing at the rate it was, well, Harry might not be able to explain it if asked. He might not be able to fully explain things as it was.

[What are the basic… things… that can be morphed for the colony's defense?] He asked at last. It had been bugging him, he _needed_ a way to defend the base other than the workers.

[There is, but first you need a Spawning pool, then Zerglings could be morphed two-per-Larva.]

[Good, we'll need that. I have a feeling about an impending.. event regarding the Swarm. I want to be ready for at least a small scale attack.] Harry quickly checked that there was no change as to what was going on around him. It took considerable concentration to though-speak, a little more than proper speaking, anyway, so it was slightly more difficult for him to multitask than with talking. It didn't exactly help that Harry wasn't known for his multitasking. [I have nothing to do at the moment, so tell me about the Zerg.] So the Hivemind did. The Hivemind told him of the known history of the Zerg through its current DNA. It also told him about how the Zerg were all about evolution. It was how a Larva could turn into a Drone; the Larva evolves into a Drone, and a Drone then could evolve into something like a Hatchery. Of course, to evolve new strains, they needed the Evolution Chamber. Incidentally, the Spawning Pool and the Evolution Chamber went hand-in-hand when integrating new DNA, for the raw materials to be placed, or recycled would go into the Spawning Pool instead of the Hatchery. It was supposed to be more efficient.

After that short burst of information sharing of those two buildings' uses, Harry began 'remembering' and knowing how to spin strands, and he probably now knew more about DNA, evolution, mutation, and genetic engineering than most specialists in the field. It also seemed that the more Harry used this Neural-network, for lack of a better name, the more he could with it and the more fluent/fluid it became.

Adds versatility to the Zerg. Able to use for more things. Eventual parasite? What would that be like? It's a Hivemind, what about Hive-memory?

Harry had a weird version of spatial awareness when he was focusing on his familiar. It was an awareness of the things on the Creep, and around his Drones. It was a weird feeling to have for Harry, to have an awareness of something not at all around him; ass to that the fact that he could tell where something was by it both being felt by the Creep, its own experience (if it was part of the Swarm), and for if something within the Swarm knew/sensed them there.

He guessed his Drones didn't have such great senses other than sight because the awareness changes in a cone-like pattern, and at that it was always more focused, or accurate in the center of the cone.

Harry's musing was interrupted by a certain grandfatherly figure, "Harry, my boy! What on earth are you doing sitting outside of my office?" Harry blinked away the vacant look that accompanied the act of merging his mind with the ongoings of his familiar.

Harry smiled indulgently at his professor. Said professor continued, "Perhaps we should head up to my office, Harry; surely my office chairs aren't all that bad." Harry nodded his assent and together they made their way into the office above.

Harry waited for the professor to take his seat and gesture him to sit before he, himself, sat. "What is this about, sir?" Was what Harry chose to start the conversation.

"Would you like to tell me where you were this morning, Harry?" Dumbledore asked, in the typical nature of asking a question to answer a question. So, Harry told him the same story he had told McGonagall and his friends. It wouldn't do to be caught with any inconsistencies in his story. Though, he did add a few more details to his friends and Dumbledore's version. He could be excused with circumstance as to why he left those details out of the story he fed to Professor McGonagall.

Dumbledore looked at Harry sadly. He believed him, and it was indeed sad that such an innocent life had to bear what it had, or will. He considered Harry for a long moment after Harry had finished his story.

It made Harry squirm, the silence. Albus didn't blame him. He knew all-to0-well the intimidation being in the headmaster's office could cause, despite it having been a very long time since his graduation. He considered telling Harry of the escaped Mass Murderer Sirius Black that supposedly was trying to kill him.

Normally Harry was around his friends. Normally he did not go anywhere without their company. He thought that Harry _always_ traveled with his friends, but this incident proved that sometimes the boy liked to go out alone. He also knew that the boy and his friends were smart, incredibly so. He reasoned that if he placed guards on the boy, he would simply slip away, and be an uninformed lamb. Or, he and his friends would try to figure it out on their own and he knew the boy's luck. If Harry went after the truth, he would probably run into Black. No, it was best that the news came from a proper source.

Decision made, he set about telling the new teen about the man that had contributed to his parents' murder by betrayal.

He even told him of the trail of the crimes he committed, and his admittance under a truth serum - Veritaserum.

/* A/N: Yes, Sirius Black actually _did_ betray James and Lily Potter. Peter _did_ die. Dumbledore refused to believe S.B. would do such a thing, which was why he presided over the trial. It was why they had a innocent until proven guilty type trial for Sirius. Dumbledore refused to believe that Sirius was guilty until Black admitted his guilt. */

The news was shocking to Harry, understandably so, too. He did not expect to be told that a serial killer/terrorist was after him - actively. When he was asked to go to the headmaster's office, he thought it would have been a simple "You should be having more sleep than you have been getting, it's not healthy…" He expected something normal like that; he should have known that 'normal' didn't exactly apply to him. After-all, his first two years of Hogwarts experience was _not_ normal. He had foolishly thought that finding the founder's resting grounds, and getting an anything-but-normal familiar would have been enough abnormality for the year. Now, with a serial killer/terrorist after him that happened to be his parent's betrayer. Though when compared to the other things he had faced, it didn't really compare to their level of danger. That wasn't to say that there wasn't a danger in having an insane trained wizard after him, but…

Not to be cocky or anything, but - okay, it might have been a little cocky to think like that. Though he had some right to be cocky, to a degree.

On the level of weirdness, Harry wasn't too sure why he was surprised that such an odd thing could happen to him.

All of that went through Harry's head in a matter of seconds. "Why am I surprised?" Harry mumbled to himself. Dumbledore's eyebrows rose; he had _not_ expected that response.

"Why is that, dear boy?" The question was asked with true curiosity, Harry could tell.

He decided to humor the old man, "Well, my entire Hogwarts career I have been in a life threatening situation at least once per year." Dumbledore nodded in agreement, despite it not having been a question.

Then, "Harry, I know that you will go off on your own no matter what I ask or do, but would you at least tell someone where you are going, and do not travel alone. This is for your own safety, I hope you understand, my boy." Harry nodded mutely, but said nothing; what could he have said to something like that? "Well, then, I believe your friends are waiting for you."

This time Harry did give a verbal reply, "Have a good afternoon, Headmaster." He got up to leave - and left to the sound of the quiet goodbye at his back.

Harry found his friends in the Gryffindor Common Room, waiting impatiently for his return and to grill him about how the meeting with the Headmaster went. Harry was in no mood, though, so he said simply, "Later." It was perhaps the clarity and sincerity with which he said the words that made Ron and Hermione not question him about the meeting.

When he was asked if he would like to go down to dinner with them, he replied that he would not, and he would just stay in the commons, "I'll probably just go to bed early and sleep on what I've been told."

Harry put actions to words by heading to the stairs. They nodded, and Hermione looked on worriedly as Harry walked past while Ron's oblivious brain perked up at the thought of food.

Harry laid on his soft bed, with his limbs sprawled out, and wearing his pajamas (read: Dudley's castoffs). He let his mind drift to his familiar instead of thinking about the murderer Sirius Black. Harry noticed at first that the Creep hadn't expanded anymore than when he had left it, some few hours before. He made a mental query about why this was, and instantly was answered with the knowledge - and understanding of - Creep Colonies.

The best way Harry could describe Creep Colonies were that if the Creep were veins in the base, and the Hatchery was much like the Heart, then the Colonies were much like an artery or a miniature heart; they assisted with the flow and spread of the Creep. They also had the added benefit of being able to hold things much like a silo and water tower hybrid. He figured then, that he wouldn't be as limited with the maximum capacity of the Hatcheries, and it solved his storage issues.

Harry still had the problem of having to be at the base to build structures because his senses were not adequate enough to 'see' where he was placing the structures As if sensing his need, the Hivemind uploaded the information about the Overlord.

Overlords, unbeknownst to Harry, acted like the RAM in a computer. Continuing with that line of thought, Harry would be the user of the computer, while the Hivemind would be the Computer itself, and the general Swarm was the motherboard. Point was, the more Overlords, the more Units he could have at one time because they allowed for a 'smarter' or 'faster' Hivemind; they provide what was know as 'supply' in a resource standpoint. That was the main purpose, at least.

What Harry was originally looking for, was the added benefit of that they acted as sensors or a 'Detector Unit'. Another added benefit, the icing on the cake as it were, was that they could also act as flying transport. How they did that, Harry didn't know.

Now all he needed to know was how to make them, and what was required. So, he requested the information.

Overlord:

Minerals: 100

Biomass: 500 UNITs

Water: 10 000 mL

Time: 50 minutes

H.P.: 200

DETECTOR

Joy, he would have to wait for the Overlord to be birthed in order for him to see what they were capable of. Before he could do that, though, he needed an update on his resources to see if he even had enough water to _do_ it. Which was the following:

Resources:

Minerals…...= 0

Biomass [max.]...= 5000/5000 UNITs

Water [dangerously low]..= 10 000/1 000 000 mL

*Supply [max.]...= 15/15 Psi

Creep Coverage…= 100 m2

Units:

Overmind (Harry Potter)..= 1

Overlord….= 0

Drone….= 15

TOTAL…...= 16

Structures:

Hatchery(s)...= 1

Creep Colony(ies)...= 0

Spawning Pool...….= 0

Evolution Chamber…...= 0

TOTAL…...= 1

*Supply:

Overmind…...= 10/10

Hatchery….= 5/5

TOTAL…...= 15/15

/* Need more Overlords */

Harry did not really know what "Supply" was, but he figured that it had something to do with how many 'units' he could have, because he had fifteen Drones, and he needed more Overlords, which would make sense, because they provide "Supply".

At the moment, though, he could only produce one Overlord, because despite being full on Biomass, he was quite low on water. At the time he was unable to find a reliable water source so deep in the forest. So, he ordered for the creation of an Overlord, and resigned himself to wait for wither the opportunity to sneak away to his base, or for it to rain before he did anything.

So focused on his familiar's mind-connection was he, that he did not notice when his body slipped into a 'sleep', or more like a comatose state. When he returned his mind to his body, he swiftly fell into morpheus' embrace.


	4. Chapter 3: Raindance

Harry was startled awake, and was quite reasonably disoriented when he reached for his glasses and placed them on his face. He did not remember falling asleep, though he did remember laying in bed, hence his being startled into consciousness, and his confusion upon joining the world of the awake. As to what woke him? Well, that was the loud sounds young boys could not help but to make going about their various morning ablutions.

Harry sighed, having realized there was no threat of him being late to make breakfast for the Dursleys. Honestly, sometimes he had to wonder how they got along when he wasn't there.

Then he remembered that a) that day was a Sunday, and as such they did not have class and, more importantly, b) the Overlord he requested to be morphed should have been finished.

He decided to have a bit of a lay-in to go over his familiar's situation. He closed his eyes, and he slipped into the familiar feeling of using his familiar's senses. But instead of 'seeing' the crude information which the Hivemind would patch together as a rough map, he received something greater than he expected. He now knew a detailed overview.

As Harry soon found out he now had the option to directly experience the point of view of his choice; in one word, he would describe the experience as, "Wicked!"

At that point, Harry was still pretty limited on what he could do, as they were still out of water; he had used the last ten-thousand millimeters on the creation of the Overlord. He thought the investment was wiser, as it would be foolish to plan the construction of something that would overlap something else due to not enough information. That, and an Overlord would not only provide supply to allow for more Zerg, but also as a scout or lookout for X things.

Unfortunately, Harry had to 'wake', and participate in his day, lest he be bullied to do a checkup at the medical wing of the school. Though he would be the first to say Madam Pomfrey was a very kind and caring person, he would also be the first to say she ran her domain like a fascist government's dictator ran their country. What she said in her domain was lay, no 'ifs', 'ands', or 'buts' about it. Harry didn't want to find out what she would do if he broke that law.

He was halfway through his own morning routine before he noticed the concerned looks his dorm mates were giving him. They weren't doing it openly, of course, but they were still kind of obvious about it. Honestly, he was surprised he hadn't noticed before. The looks made sense, seeing as he had never, in all of his Hogwarts career, woken up late. Sure, he had lazed about before, but he had always woken up a good while before everyone else.

Harry caught their eyes and gave them a, hopefully, reassuring smile, then he went on down for a slightly lte breakfast. He wondered if he could sneak off to his familiar at some point. He decided against going that day; he had a feeling that it would look suspicious.

It was not just his friends that were giving his odd looks. He found himself, once again, subject to Hogwarts' rumor mill. Even the teachers were watching him. Though, they tried to do it discreetly, Harry knew by then what to look for.

Harry was in the middle of his breakfast when Ron stopped in favor of looking at him. Now, he knew Ron was serious if he stopped taking in food to talk; he thought Ron a good friend, but even he found the boy's eating habits to be a little grotesque. Ah, well, there wasn't much Harry could do about it other than not look his way much.

"Harry?" Ron asked. Harry swallowed his food before he looked to his friend.

"Yes Ron?"

"Harry, are you feeling alright? I mean you've been acting a little off… Is it about that Black person? 'Cause if it is, you don't need to worry about it, I'm sure they'll catch him…"

"Ron, you're rambling," Harry cut the aforementioned boy off. Ron blushed a Weasley red, at both noticing them having been the center of attention, and at what Harry said. "And to answer your question, Ron, I'm fine. Thank you for asking."

"Right. Um, I just want you to know that if you need anything, I'm here for you. Anything, Harry, anything." Harry smiled.

"Thanks, Ron. That means a lot to me."

"Hey, what are best mates for, Right?" Harry laughed and nodded. They both went back to their breakfast, both feeling a little lighter in spirit. Hermione smiled, having followed along with the entire conversation, glad that her two best friends were as close as they were despite their differences.

Though, she _was_ worried about a certain mass murderer after her best friend. That and it was October; she was smart enough to see a pattern when it was to see a pattern when it was to be seen. Who knew what would happen this Halloween, compared to all the previous experiences.

Harry and Ron were sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room playing chess. It had been a while so he figured a game of chess was overdue. For the first time ever, Harry thought he might have a chance against his friend. Sure, it looked like Harry was losing, but from what the Hivemind said, he could very well turn it around on his opponent. He thought that it was odd, and slightly cheaty to have an entire network of brains at his disposal to calculater out moves.

It was a true testament of Ron's strategic intelligence and talent to be able to stand his own against a collective of minds. True, this collective only had Harry's experiences to work off of, and was quite young because of it, but still, it was quite impressive. Harry didn't put much faith in winning against Ron, despite the odds in his favor - according to the Hivemind.

So it was a surprised Harry Potter that ended the game with a checkmate. Ron, Surprisingly, wasn't all that surprised. Though, if Harry were the type to bet, his money would be on either Ron or Hermione as to who would know that he wasn't loosing. Even he didn't _really_ know he was winning, hence his surprise.

He was broken out of his thoughts by Ron saying, with a grin, "That was the most fun playing chess! How'd you get so good, Harry?" Said boy replied with a shrug, and he blushed a bright red when he noticed the amount of people that had watched the game; there were plenty of observers.

Who knew _chess_ could be entertaining? Granted, it _was_ a wizarding chess board, and most people like violence.

"Play again?" Harry heard Ron ask. He nodded mutely, and o that was how Ron and Harry's morning was spent; they played chess. After it was all said and done, Ron still managed to beat Harry and the Swarm at least three of four times. It was why Harry didn't feel guilty about taking the Hive Mind's help; he needed all the help he could get facing off against Ron during chess!

Harry looked up from his Runes book to the sight of a tired Hermione. He narrowed his eyes in suspicion; he had known Hermione for a long time, and he had never seen her so… overworked, even during first and second year's exams.

He resolved to confront her in a more private setting. Whatever it was she was doing could not be good for her if this was the end result.

He returned his attention to his lunch; after all, he couldn't really do anything about it now. His plate was once again filled and he actually managed to at most of what he placed on the plate. For him it was just a thing he did every time he returned to Hogwarts. Harry would start off with fairly small rations, and then with every passing day would slowly increase his meal sizes. When his meal size was appropriate for a growing boy, he would stop.

His meal was interrupted, however, when a fairly frantic familiar of his invaded his thoughts, [Overmind! Enemies are attacking your Drones!] The exclamation was followed by Harry merging his mind so that he could see a type of map around his base. He could 'see' two Acromantula fighting with one of his previously idle Drones. What surprised him was the fact that the Drone was holding its own so far.

Harry quickly co-ordinated three of the closest Drones to go and attack the overgrown spiders. His thought was that four of his Drones would be able to take out the Acromantula.

Harry's extra Drones caught the Acromantula by surprise, allowing for his damaged Drone to take a cheap shot on its right facing spider. The original Drone then took its other pincer-claw and stabbed the side of the spider.

The backup Drones didn't just wait around. Drone three and four went after the second Acromantula, while Drone two went and helped the first Drone still holding onto the first Acromantula. The Acromantula used its legs to try to rip into the first Drone; that informed the rest to be wary of the Acromantula legs. The second and fourth Drones spat acid at the attackers while the two odd numbered Drones used their limbs to pierce the now-discovered armor of the Acromantula.

All-in-all, the Drones made quick work of the Acromantula, having the exchange only take forty five seconds from the time reinforcements showed, to when the Acromantula were dead.

The first Drone was quite badly injured, with one 'wing' barely hanging on, and some of its eyes gouged out in the hopes of hindering its ability to attack. The other three aren't as bad off, but they still sustained damage. Mostly they were just puncture wounds from when the spiders stabbed them, but there were a couple bite marks that was infected with some of the Acromantula's venom. [Can anything be done for them? Or, is it too late for the Drones, and if so can they be… recycled?]

Harry mentally cringed at the last word; it just did not sound right to apply the word 'recycle' to anything alive. [For Zerg, we can heal if we burrow. Zerg heal faster if burrowed in Creep.]

He was faintly amused at the way his familiar was developing. It appeared that the Hivemind was developing a kind of personality instead of the aloof version of before. The next thing he expected to happen would be for the Hivemind to identify with a gender.

/* A/N: I'm too lazy to make my rainfall data accurate, so deal with it. I made it as accurate as it's gonna be. I'm working off the stereotype that it rains a lot in the U.K and Scotland. */

Damn that Narrator and adding its wandering thoughts to a story.

Harry told the Drones to get back to base, and to leave the two bodies where they were. He further ordered them to burrow underneath the Creep to heal. Then came the order for some of the other idle Drones to bring the dead spiders to the base and keep them there. Harry planned on using them for genetic material.

Harry told the Drones to burrow 'close' to the Hatchery, and further told the Hivemind to see if it could somehow use biomass from the Hatchery to speed the healing process for the Drones. He figured that he had enough material (5000 / 5000 UNITs of Biomass) to try, and it would be a good thing to know later on. He knew that the Zerg could heal without either the Creep out the extra Biomass, but it would be beneficial to know if he had the option of speeding the process.

He had to eat his lunch, though, so he told the Hivemind to inform him later how the process went.

Harry shook his head physically to clear some of the mental fog after just two miles of telepathic usage. He then turned his attentions on his lunch, and continued eating.

He pretended not to see the questioning look Hermione gave him upon noticing the spaced-out look he had was no longer present on his face.

The rest of the day carried on in much the same way as it usually did for Harry James Potter. Though when he got into bed that night, something exciting happened. Something which normally would not excite people. But for Harry, it was like Christmas came early for a normal child.

What happened, you ask? Well, it rained that night.


	5. Chapter 4: A Layout

Chapter 4

Harry connected to his familiar's network as soon as he had laid his head on his pillow. He knew that his familiar couldn't really do anything without his say-so, so he was giddy to start making changes.

The first thing he did when his connection was confirmed was to check on the current forces, water intake, and his current storage capacity.

 **Resources:**

Biomass….= 4900 / 5000 UNITs

Water….= 1 000 000 /1 000 000 mL _\+ 1000 mL(100)/min_.

*Supply…..= 15 / 23

Creep Coverage….…..= 100 m squared

Units:

Overmind (Harry Potter)..= 1

Overlord….= 1

Drone….= 16

TOTAL...…= 17

Structures:

Hatchery…...= 1

Creep Colonies….= 0

Evolution Chamber…...= 0

*Supply:

Overlord(1)...= 8 of 8

Hatchery(1)...= 5 of 5

Overmind(1)...= 2 of 10

TOTAL(of 3)…..= 15 of 23

He absently noted that the information he received was more defined as time passed on.

Harry noticed he had full water with only a small amount of time. He did not know this, but one millimeter of rain on one metre squared was equivalent to one thousand milliliters, or one liter. So, all he had to have was a light drizzle on his Creep for a full reservoir. All that he knew was that on a night like this, with it pouring rain, he had an extra intake of one million milliliters per minute.

He might not have taken note of the technicalities, but the Hivemind did; the Hivemind stored that data for future reference.

The next thing Harry did was to order the Overlord to rise higher in the air so as to give Harry a better view of the surrounding area. He had previously mentioned to the Hivemind to keep the Overlords hidden under the treeline during the day. Then he planned out where he would like to place things.

He started out with four Creep Colonies, now dubbed C.C.s, each at a cardinal point. He ordered a Drone to each site, and instructed them to begin the change into a C.C.. When the four morphed into large egg-like cocoons, everything was like when a Larva morphed into a Drone, but scaled up considerably. This time they need not have a pile of wood beneath them for the buildings to morph, for fire-hose sized tubes connected the Hatchery to the cocoons. He knew it would be about twenty minutes before all four were finished. Hopefully he would gain another two hundred meters squared in Creep coverage.

Then, Harry took the space South East of the Hatchery to place a Spawning Pool. Off to the East of the Pool, he sent another Drone to morph into an Evolution Chamber. When the two were finished growing, he planned on connecting the two to work with the benefits of each other.

He realized that at this rate he would lose all of his Drones to Structures. As it was he had nine, and he sent them off to bring in Biomass, as he had begun to run a little low with five hundred thirty UNITs, and ordered the production of two more Drones. He told the Hivemind to cue one more Drone for when the resources finished being assimilated.

Harry looked for positions where he could place some units to burrow and surprise any would-be attackers. He planned on making two more lines, with a large gap in the middle. His plan was for him to surround the enemy, and then swarm them with Zerglings. It must be called the Swarm for a reason, right?

But that was for much later.

At that moment he was content to plan and to watch his Zerg morphed from Larva into Drones. It seemed that no matter how many times he witnessed a morph, it was still fascinating to see,

Harry spent the next twenty minutes that way, waiting for the various things to grow: He waited for the C.C.s, his Drones, the Evolution Chamber, and the Spawning Pool. It would take twenty, twenty, forty, and eighty minutes to finish from start to finish, respectively.

He was informed that the reason why the Spawning Pool took so long to grow was that the acids took a long time to create, and to create the containing mechanisms for the acids; it wouldn't do to have acids spill out over the Creep. Granted, the Creep probably could handle the acids on it, but the things _on_ the Creep might not be able to.

Twenty minutes late, two Drones were 'born' along with the Creep Colonies. Immediately, Harry could 'see' core Creep being generated as soon as the colonies were just finished being complete.

In two minutes, Harry would have a third Drone, and a second replaced Larva. Hr ordered for the two Drones to get to work as the other Drones were. Next, he changed his mind about sending the new Drones to work. Instead, with two additional Drones, he set up four more C.C.s. It would be another twenty minutes before the C.C.s would be ready, but Harry was a patient person.

The next twenty minutes were spent with Harry ordering for another Drone, and watching his growing swarm. He was happy with the way his swarm was progressing. Then, his evolution Chamber finished, along with the four new C.C.s. Each of the colonies were at forty five degree angles starting at North going around the Cardinal points.

He immediately called for the move of the two slowly decaying spiders that attacked his Drones from earlier into the Evolution Chamber. He wanted this DNA known inside the 'database'. The chamber immediately 'swallowed; the first spider and started in on analyzing the DNA and interpreting the data. It would take a while to get through all of the data and then more time before he could integrate it into the Swarm.

Harry knew that he needed to have more Larva production, because it was slow-going for the production of 'units'. So to fix the oversight, he took two Drones, and arranged for them to morph into a Hatchery each. One he made to morph between the North West position between the original Hatchery, and the North West C.C.. The other went between the original Hatchery, and the North East C.C..

Then he waited.

As soon as the Spawning Pool finished it connected itself to the Evolution Chamber to the East by wire-like appendages between them, connecting them. And, Harry had immediately ordered the production of three Zerglings pairs. It would be twenty eight minutes before they were ready.

During the wait, he directed the Overlord to fly higher yet still under the coverage of the cloudy night sky.

He knew it was night, but he sometimes forgot when using the senses of the Zerg, for the dark didn't hinder them, normally.

Using the Overlord as a scout, he directed it to look for a close by stream or river that he could get water from without rain. He was in luck; he need only to develop a way to collect it. Then he remembered that an Overlord could be used for transportation…

Harry developed the plan to use the Overlords to collect required water under the cover of night or clouds so as to have a way of getting it.

If he expanded the Creep to the edge of the water, and place a Creep Colony on the edge of the river, it could act as a pump… No, that would not work because the C.C.s were meant for collection. So, he looked through what the Swarm had to offer, and became very excited when he found something called an Extractor.

Originally the building in question was meant as a way to harvest Vespene Gas, whatever that was. Through a few genetic modifications, Harry should be able to make it function the way he wanted it to.

He was broken out of his musings by the birth of the first six Zerglings to grace the Earth.

The Zerglings were, in his biased opinion, cute. They were one metre tall, and two metres from tip-to-tail, about half the height of a Drone. They had four legs, and a tail, with very sharp teeth. Along the tail were spikes, and at the end of the tail was a wicked looking blade. The front two legs ended in blades instead of a proper leg endings like the hindquarters. It was made up of an exoskeleton for basic armor that looked like scales.

All-in-all, it looked like a cross between a raptor, a greyhound dog, and a knife set.

They were born in pairs from the same egg/cocoon. Harry took that to mean multiple things. One, it would mean they work better in pairs, or possibly groups. Two, it would mean that the pair might have a twin bond. If they had a twin bond, then they would be quite deadly in combat. Three, they might have a better mental connection with each other, versus the rest of the Swarm. Four, the Zerglings might even share the same mental capacity, making a pair one unit. This was furthered by the fact that one pair only cost one Supply.

He sent the six to patrol and to protect the Drones for the time being. He resolved to keep an active twelve on the surface, and the rest could go underground for... Storage. It wouldn't do to let the future enemy know his true force - he would let them think he only had Drones and twelve Zerglings to defend himself with, until it is too late.

'Woah, when did it become defending me?' He mentally shook his head; it wasn't the time.

Harry spent the rest of the night talking with the Hivemind, mainly with it trying to get hims to become Zerg because, "He was a fleshy weakling." It wasn't all about conversion, it was also about whatever came to mind. Harry also spent the time not only chatting, but also experiencing being a Drone. About partway through being a Drone, he decided to try for a Zergling.

But instead of experiencing just one body - one Zergling - his mind and focus was split between two bodies. It was an odd feeling for Harry, being in two places at once. Harry was perfectly happy with not being in control of the bodies and just experiencing it, because he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to control two bodies. He figured that if he couldn't control his _own_ body plus be connected to the Zerg network, then he definitely couldn't control two Zergling bodies; he wasn't made for something like that.

Harry wondered if he became Zerg, that it would become easier to use the Zerg network. The only thing that prevented him from getting a Zerg tune-up was the fact that it wasn't safe to do so at the moment, and if it were successful, it would probably be too obvious he went through a change. His objective was stealth, at the moment.

Harry resolved to have Snape as one of the first 'volunteers' to test out his Human/Zerg integration technique - as soon as he came up with one. He still needed some cadavers to study for him to come up with an integration technique.

Perhaps he could create a parasite before he created a full integration. The parasites would infect (obviously) the target, and go about analyzing the host. Then, it would take care of its Host, it would do its very best to keep the Host healthy; it wouldn't do to have the Host die of illness, would it? So, it would be more of a mutualistic relationship than a parasitic one.

Of course, the Zerg would have a few side-effects, like that fact that the Host would become an unwitting spy for the Swarm, and that it could have a "Kill Switch" for emergencies. In the event of an emergency, the parasite would be able to consume the Host, and emerge as a very small, basic unit that would be able to attack things outside the body. He got the idea of a kill switch from Broodlings.

He debated on weather to make the parasite able to infect other, and decided in favour of it. The only difference would be that the population would be controlled. There couldn't be too many parasites with not enough Supply; it would be a train on the Swarm any other way.

Sometime during Harry's musing, he had switched from experiencing different Zergling pairs to a Larva.

The Zerglings were ecstatic to have the chance to share their experience with the Overmind. The Swarm would do anything for their Overmind, even give up their bodies for the Overmind to control or sacrifice their lives for the him. Granted, they knew that they would eventually be reborn back into the Swarm if they did die, but that was irrelevant - it was the thought that counted! This elation transferred over to the Larva; the larva too, were ecstatic about hosting the Overmind. To the Zerg, it was a privilege to hold host to the Overmind.

At some point in time, Harry had changed his perception to that of the Drones once more. They felt the same as the Larva and the Zerglings. But what was truly odd, was that Harry had chosen to experience the various buildings.

His thought was that the buildings were alive, so they must experience things. It was the strangest thing he had ever dome or felt, being a building. It took a considerable amount of time for Harry to get used to each and every different building, unit, or Creep that belonged to his Swarm, before he went back to 'being' an Overlord.

Like the last time Harry was concentrated on his task, his body fell into a coma like state while his mind was working. And, like last time he didn't notice it. The Swarm did, and they stored the information away.

It would prove to be useful later on.

Just like last time, Harry proved the term, "Time flies while you're having fun," true. However, unlike last time, he was too engrossed in his tasks that he didn't return to his body in time for him to wake in the morning. That was the state his roommates had found him in - his body was in a comatose-like state.

His friends couldn't wake him.

/* A/N: I've been thinking of making another crossover, but for the life of me, I don't know what I should make it with. I don't feel all too confident about making it a Stargate cross, and I don't think it could fit in with Star Wars… Star Trek wouldn't have anyone for Harry to fight. Hmm… Harry _did_ get the Drone from across 'Universes', so it _could_ be feasible for Harry to be able to as well… That would be how I could cross them together! Perhaps he could travel to the StarCraft UNI and kick ass. No, that would take too damn long to write.

On another note, the reason why the chapters have uploaded so 'quickly', was that they were already written, I just had to type them and upload them. I have, at the moment, one page of chapter 5 completed, so don't be surprised if the next chapter isn't uploaded too soon.*/


	6. Chapter 5: Distractions

Chapter 5

Ron woke slowly on Monday morning, despite the attempts of his alarm spell. Reluctantly, he rolled himself out of bed to start in on his morning routines. He stopped part way through, though, when he noticed the closed drapes. He made his way over to Harry's bed, having to wade through things only teens could have in their room.

He opened the Drapes to find Harry still asleep, which immediately alarmed him; Harry normally was the first one awake of the five boys in the room. Ron did the sensible thing in trying to wake him, because it wouldn't do for them to miss class.

He quickly found that he couldn't wake him. "Hey guys?" He asked hollowly, "Harry won't wake up."

"Then use the Augmenta Charm; isn't it how your mother uses when you won't?" Replied Dean. He nodded dumbly, then did as suggested - nothing. Harry didn't even twitch.

"Nothing." Ron announced. This made everyone in the room stop what they were doing and look on in concern.

"Nothing?" Dean asked, like he hadn't heard. Ron nodded in confirmation.

{-*-}

Meanwhile:

Harry began to take over or possess the bodies of his familiar. He started off 'small', with him controlling the Overlord's movement without commanding it mind-to-mind, but with direct mind-to-body. The reason why he used the Overlord first was that he was the most familiar with it. It was an odd thing for him to experience, even though he had spent a while experiencing life as an Overlord, it was very different to _be_ one himself. It took a while to get used to being an Overlord, and learning how to move, act, and so on despite the fact that the Hivemind, and the Overlord he was possessing happily walked him through living as an Overlord.

Once Harry was confident in his abilities as an Overlord, he then went for something considerably harder. He went for the Zerglings. He wanted to at the least try it because he believed that it would help him in at least being semi-aware of the surroundings of his body while still focusing on Zerg issues.

He followed the same process as before, though this time he received the walk-through from the Zergling mind collective instead of the Overlord. As he thought about it, he realized that he did need more Overlords. So, while he was going around as two separate bodies, he was directing this… Brood to grow the way he thought best.

Harry directed a Drone to evolve into a second Evolution Chamber to the West of the Spawning Pool. Then he went on to creating more Zerglings, Drones, and a few more Overlords to compensate for the growing units. He switched out of the Zergling body and back into the Overlord to delicately manoeuvre it in order to gather more water, for it had stopped raining although there was some heavy cloud cover.

The Overlord's body was able to make quick work of filling up its 'cargo space' with the water, and further taking it back to the base. If Harry were to describe the experience, he would describe it as not dissimilar to sucking up water into his mouth, and then spitting it out. He ordered the Overlord to continue in this process until the clouds could not cover the Overlord's activity.

Having set up the various orders, Harry then went on to merge his mind with the Evolution Chamber again, but this time instead of just experiencing it as a passive observer he was making an effort to learn. He made an effort to learn the ins and outs of the Evolution Chamber, with the added bonus of the Chamber being active with researching the spiders of a previous scuffle..

He continued on like this, with the Hivemind answering his questions, until the second Evolution Chamber was finished, and then he went 'into' the fresh E.C.. There he then possessed the chamber, for he needed to spin the strands himself. Before he got to work, he remembered the Creep Colonies surrounding his base. He knew that they had the ability to evolve further into things that could protect his base - some he ordered to evolve into things called 'Spore Colonies', and the rest he morphed into 'Sunken Colonies'. The odd thing about these buildings were that they counted as a unit that didn't depend on Supply. This was what the Hivemind could tell him about the two units.

Spore Colony:

Minerals= 175

Biomass= 875 UNITs

Water= 17 500 mL

TIME= 20 minutes

H.P.= 400 POINTs

DETECTOR= TRUE

Air Attack= 15

Sunken Colony:

Minerals= 175

Biomass= 875 UNITs

Water= 17 500 mL

TIME= 20 minutes

H.P.= 300 POINTs

Ground Attack= 40

Armour= 2

Afterword, Harry started to work on modifying the Extractor. It would cost a little more than the regular Extractor, but it would be very beneficial to have a constant intake of water. Besides, it wasn't like he could use his Overlords all the time, they weren't really meant to do a Drone's job.

The end result was that the Extractor now had roots like a tree that would burrow underground to suck up well water OR surface water if he so desired. The best part was that it didn't need to be built on the Creep, but it HAD to be close to the water, and it needed the biomass to be place where it would morph. Another downside to having the Extractor off of the Creep was that the Drones had to go to the Extractor to get the water. If it _was_ connected to the Creep then it had no problems sending it through, which was his addition. Oh, well, the original Extractor had to have Drones pickup and deliver the gas it collected, so it wasn't really a loss.

He compared the two:

Extractor:

Minerals=50

Biomass= 250 UNITs

Water= 5 000 mL

Time= 40 minutes

HEALTH= 750 POINTs

Water Extractor:

Biomass= 300 UNITs

Water= 6 000 mL

Time (off Creep)= 80 minutes

HEALTH= 750 POINTs

Harry thought it was perfect.

He ordered for a Drone and a contingent of Zerglings to act as guards. He knew he would have to have some Zerglings patrol the path between the Water Extractor and the base, as he knew that it was a weak spot for his Drones to travel on to a destination so far away from the base. His attention was drawn elsewhere for the duration of the resource gathering so that the Drone could morph into a Water Extractor.

The resources were gathered in no time at all, allowing for the Drone to start up on the transformation process, as per its orders. Harry was happy about this particular building, because though it normally doesn't have a connection to the Creep, that did not hinder its collection of water for its morph. Indeed, he was quite proud of what he had made, or rather, innovated.

He set up the routes that the Zerglings and Drones were to take to and from the Water Extractor when it finished, and watched interestedly as he switched view to that of the first Drone to enter the building. The Drone went to pick up the first blue sack/egg it found. These were organic containers that the building produced for holding the liquid he had been after. They were as big as a fifty gallon drum, and Harry had no illusion that the Drone wouldn't be able to carry all of that water.

After he had established the resource collection to his satisfaction, he had then went back to his research with the Evolution Chamber.

He spent two weeks with his Swarm, with his attentions being hogged by the Evolution Chambers. Though, much more had happened during those two weeks than just that pertaining to his familiar.

/* A/N: A short and vague chapter, I know, but I am still in the process of brainstorming some ideas as to what to do, and when to place the events. *sigh,* organizing my thoughts is the worst thing since first degree murder became frowned upon. (Honestly, the only reason some people are alive is because it is illegal to shoot them.)

This was supposed to be only a part of Chapter 5, but I decided that I should post _something_. So, bare with me people! */


	7. Chapter 6: Poked and Prodded

Chapter 6

Day 1 of Coma:

Professor McGonagall was quickly called for, and through her, Madam Poppy Pomfrey. Harry, in the meantime was moved to the Hospital Wing of the castle.

Madam Poppy Pomfrey had sighed when a professor had entered her domain, and wondered what those hooligans they call children had done this early in the happen if they used then punishments of old. She nodded in agreement with herself, these miscreants needed more than just a firm talking to for some of the things they did to each other.

She sighed again when she sighted- boy- would need her 'special' treatment, one Harry Potter. Honestly, the boy seemed to spend more time in one of the beds than he did having fun; it wasn't healthy. She waved her friend to one of the nearby beds, and received a nod from the stern witch.

Madam Pomfrey speed walked over longer, more -depth diagnostic spell. Again, she received the same thing she normally did when the boy had nothing wrong with him. By her scans, there was nothing wrong with the boy to make him go into a coma, Magical or Muggle.

"What's wrong with him, Poppy?" Minerva asked wearily, dreading a horrible prognosis-some untreatable ailment.

"I don't know," was the answer Minerva McGonagall received. It was obviously not the answer she was hoping for; it was not even the answer she was dreading. In a way, though, it was worse, for then she had to fear the unknown. "Now I need you to leave, I have work to do." Minerva nodded tersely; everyone knew how Madam Poppy Pomfrey could get about her domain.

After hours methods, the stubborn healer finally admitted defeat. That, and a fair few things wrong with the boy but would not explain the boy's current predicament. She called her contact in St. Mungo's, and explained the situation to them.

As she waited for her contact to geAs she waited for her contact to get their things together, she had a few to pier with some noteworthy people and some reports to file. Honestly, how could the boy be this underfed! Even the Weasleys didn't starve, and they were one of the poorest families she knew; they were famous for it! Well, that and being a large one, of course. In the meantime, she had a report or two to fill out.

Day 2 of Coma:

It took until the next day for everything to be ready for Harry's transfer to St. Mungo's Hospital. Within that time, Madam Poppy Pomfrey, renowned healer in the field of paediatrics, had completed her medical report of one of her frequent and favourite patients. She had prepared his medical file, and used a well known spell to healers to change her messy scrawl to newspaper-type print. The only downside to the spell was that in order for the spell to work, the the one to write the information had to be the someone to perform the spell.

When she had re-read the boy's file, within the safety of her well-warded office, she realized just how bad it looked. She was desensitized by the constant flow of the boy's injuries; she had never seen the overview of what had happened to the boy, nor had she done any in depth scans.

She sighed, placed the file on her desk, and rested her head on her arms. She was suddenly very tired.

Madam Pomfrey blamed herself for not catching on to the treatments the boy needed, as well as overlooking the damage the boy carried. She was a renowned pediatrician! She should know better! Sure, she never had to do the in depth scans that she performed not to long ago, and yes the boy hated the Hospital Wing, but she should have known! It was not excuse!

In that moment, while Madam Poppy Pomfrey berated herself for her mistakes, she looked all of her years spent in a stressful, demanding career.

That was the position she was in when her contact arrived in her office for the transfer of her patient. She belatedly realized that she would have to inform Albus that one of his students would be transferred out of his school.

Elsewhere:

At the Gryffindor table, Ron and Hermione waited to see if their friend would wake in the Hospital Wing, and possibly join them. They had looked up to the head table, at their Head of House, only to receive a shake of the stern woman's head in answer.

This had placed them on edge, and they would stay worried for their friend continuously.

Day 3 of Coma:

Harry's new healer had finally made it to him on the second day of arriving in St. Mungo's hospital. The reason why it took so long for the transfer to go through was that as soon as the 'higher-ups' of the hospital heard about a transfer for a sick Harry Potter, they insisted on it to be under auror guard.

It was a nightmare. Honestly, the healer thought, it was disgusting the way they hero-worshipped a thirteen year old boy; in a coma no less! Though, she conceded the point that an auror guard was a good idea considering how people would react to the boy. THere _were_ some that wanted him dead, or worse. Honestly, she thought that were it not for the negative scans, she would have thought him already a victim of too much Cruciatus Curse. She reasoned, though, that any amount of the Cruciatus Curse seemed too much to her.

When it was all said and done, Harry was placed in one of the more secure rooms, with some aurors to guard him against any nefarious plots.

Day 8 of Coma:

The healers of St. Mungo's had been surprised by their findings. Though, the surprise was lessened by the report given by Healer Poppy Pomfrey, and the medical file of one Harry Potter.

The boy showed various signs of neglect, and abuse while growing up, as far back as before Hogwarts.

But that was only to start with. There was, what looked like, a constant strain on the boy's magic from a foreign... object. They were still waiting on the various specialists to give an idea to what it was. Then there was the foreign substances in the boy's bloodstream.

The analysis of his blood showed that he had both an unidentifiable toxic poison in his blood, and phoenix tears. The poison was not losing toxicity, but the boy's body did not seem to have any adverse effects from it, yet the phoenix tears seemed to be losing potency over time. It looked like, to them, that somehow their patient was building up a sort of immunity to whatever the poison was with the phoenix tears he had used to make it so as he didn't die during the initial process.

They thought that if Harry, or anyone did this on purpose, they could easily be considered insane. Not only would undergoing the procedure be almost on par with the Cruciatus Curse with pain, but they speculated that there was around a ninety percent chance of the patient dying from the poison. After-all, when their patient's blood touched any object that was not Wizard's Glass or, it started to melt through it. They did speculate that there were some other things it would not be able to corrode, but they had yet to find them.

There were scars that littered the surface of the boy's body, and only some of them had a faint magical 'hue' to it that would indicate them as having magic involved to how they got there. This led the good healers to deduce that they were placed there by muggles, or non-magical accidents, as no self-respecting Wizard would resort to muggle violence, especially on a child. As far as the healers knew, the only muggles that had access to the boy were his relatives, and there was no was that the Savior of the Wizarding World was clumsy enough to receive such injuries. Even if the boy _had_ performed all that the books about him said, and all of the Quidditch practice in the world could not result in such scars.

They placed their findings and professional opinions in a medical report to be used at a later date. They had to get the boy's say about what they found before they could do anything about it, though.

Day 9 of Coma:

On the ninth day of Harry Potter's coma, he had scheduled a delicate operation to determine what could be siphoning off his magical power. The operation involved the equivalent of four surgeons in the magical world. That was to say, it involved four highly skilled spell casters in a specified magical medical field. For simplicities' sake, the muggleborn had dubbed these individuals as 'magical surgeons'. Needless to say, the name caught on despite the purebloods' scorn of muggleborn. The operation was the equivalent of muggle exploratory surgery.

The process was that the four magical surgeons would, in tandem, cast specialised scanning spells that would 'open' the patient's magical core and pathways for them to see in a visual way. When they were casting, they would be able to effect change in the body, magical core, and so on much like a muggle surgeon could during exploratory surgery.

They had found multiple… anomalies. The anomalies were dealt with quickly, having been determined detrimental to the boy's health. The first one was a simple blockage of the boy's Magical Circulatory System; the system acted much like its name suggested, with its counterpart as a the normal Cardiovascular System. Much like how the heart would pump the blood within a body, so would the magical core, or sometimes called the magical heart, circulate magic in the body. Each system was just as complicated as the other, but the difference was that for magical races, the magic was _meant_ to exit the body.; it was meant to be used outside the system.

The blockage was dealt with by carefully flushing the system, and henceforth removed the blockage. There were mostly worried by how the blockage got there in the first place. Magical blocks were hard to get, and one of the most common ways of getting them were to do with diet. If a witch or wizard were to be starved they would gain magical blockages so as to lessen the drain of converting nutrition that would go to the body to be converted to magic.

The second issue was slightly tougher to deal with, but the healers were not considered the best for nothing. In fact an ordinary team would have been hard-pressed to deal with the anomaly that they found. It was identified as a type of parasite or tumor or both by the various healers that checked it out. The team 'surgically' removed it from the teen celebrity.

When all was said and done six hours had passed, and the various healers were astounded that the poor boy had managed to get a reaction from a wand, let-alone the power output he had already displayed. They speculated that after the new teen had woken, he would find he had a significant increase to his magical prowess. The healers were happy to help.

The healers had not, however, managed to find any connection to Harry's coma. They were very disappointed.

Day 10 of Coma:

"... might've been _Black_ that was the one that caused it. No way that what happened to him was coincidence; after-all, he _is_ the Boy-Who-Lived." The despised name, at least those that weren't sympathisers to the Dark Lord, was spat from the new Auror guard like something vile had touched his pallet. Literally, as he had to vanish the spittle that flew to the sterile Hospital floor. The other guard nodded mutely, as he literally could not voice his response. It was due to him having said something he shouldn't have to his wife.

She was not pleased with him afterward; he knew that he fully deserved the cursing he got for his stupidity.

"I mean, the Blacks are well known to have some pretty nasty family spells. They're the best, and most insane the Dark has to offer." again there was no comment, and the one who's the voice belonged to again glanced at this silent comrade.

Meanwhile, inside the room the two were supposed to be guarding, the subject of which was the topic was in the room. The emaciated, insane man looked forlornly at the oh-so-easy to kill being in front of him, but alas, his master would not be pleased to have the chance taken away from him when he returned.

So, like the loyal subject that he was, he had only collected the required materials from the boy, and had then left, leaving no trace as to having ever been in the room.

He had tasks to fulfill, after-all, and it wouldn't do for anyone to find out about them prematurely.

Day 13 of coma (Hallowe'en):

The various files and findings of the many medimagis had built a solid case against whomever had perpetrated the harm against the resident wizarding celebrity. Now, all that needed to be done was to inform the big, and have him direct as to where the charges needed to be laid.

* * *

Everything was set, even the cauldron was ready and boiling. Sirius Black had then proceeded with the ritual upon his master's prompting, and without further ado before him stood his master, returned from the dead.

He had even been gifted a golden hand for his efforts in resurrecting his master. Now all that had to be dealt with were the other followers. The unworthy, and those that had believed his master had died.

Day 14 of coma:

Harry had slowly opened his eyes to the harsh glare of what he correctly assumed to be a hospital. He had only the time to think, _Oh, what happened this time?!_ Before he heard a door opening.

 **A/N: About time that I update, isn't it? It was what, a month ago that I had my last update? Yeah, I really need to work on this one more.**


	8. Chapter 7: Umgubular Slashkilter

Chapter 7

The door moved out of the way to permit the image of a robed figure. They were purple, which was an odd colour for someone to wear, in Harry's opinion. The figure looked up from a papyrus scroll and had visible jumped upon seeing the bright green eyes of Harry's staring back at , like any good medical professional, had then rushed forward to check on Harry's status.

It was one of the many reasons why Harry did not like Hospitals. That, and the harsh white glare he was treated to upon waking.

Eventually, with much fanfare, Harry had gotten the basic information of where he was, how long he had been out, and a basic update of what had been happening in his absence. Apparently, it was the day after Hallowe'en, to which Harry was immensely happy that he hadn't been awake for the cursed day.

He wouldn't be disappointed either, as he would never find out that is was on that day he had contributed to the Dark Lord's return.

Back to the part where he had accidentally gotten himself into a coma by being sidetracked with his familiar. Harry resolved to work on his multitasking, or at the very least speed up the research of integrating humans into the Swarm. He really needed to be better connected to his familiar to be effective.

Eventually, Harry had been left alone by the medical professionals, but they were only to be replaced by an official looking robed woman. She was robed in blood red, a dead giveaway to her being an Auror. She had begun with asking after Harry's living conditions, and to this Harry wasn't all that shy to say how horrible they were. Given different circumstances, he would have downplayed the abuse he had received from the Dursley's, but since having come into control of the Swarm he had become a lot less shy about himself.

He figured it was about time that he had gotten out of the Dursley's, and he figured that talking to the official looking officer in front of him would be just the thing to do so. Eventually, Harry had to ask, "Why are you suddenly taking an interest into where I go for the summer? I've survived there for twelve years so far, why are you only asking now if I like it there?"

The woman twitched at the words Harry had chosen to use, and had licked her suddenly dry lips before answering, "Well, Albus Dumbledore had assured the public that you had been placed in a good home, and it was only just now that we realized just how wrong that assumption was. It was only because of what the healers had found in their scans that we knew something wasn't as it had seemed, and sense legally the healers had to report suspected abuse -"

"Abuse? I'm not being abused! Sure I'll get a smack here or there, and I might get punished for being bad, but that's the same for everyone, right?" The entire time the questioning had been going on, Harry had been acting his best to be the shy, abused boy. It wasn't hard for him, considering that was how he had acted for most of his life. It was only when he had gotten to Hogwarts, and entered into a whole other world it seemed, that he had started over with a bravado mask.

Over time that mask became who he was, and it wasn't hard to act the part of something he once was.

"Harry, a good caretaker would let their charge go medically untreated. There are different forms of abuse, Harry, and your relatives are guilty of at least one of them."

Harry just gave her a confused nod, and they both collectively let the matter drop for now. They had then went on to talking about other, less depressing, things.

* * *

There was a reason why Harry had been lost in the management of his Familiar's growth, though. He had not been idle. One of the things that Harry had worked on was to create an organism that's sole purpose was towards the evolution of the Swarm. It was surprisingly easy to create the cerabate's mind, and having its sole focus to be on evolution made it all the easier to do.

It's mind, when it came into being, was named Praegressus after the mind had looked into the memories of Harry's own memories and had chosen it. It was a fitting name, being the latin word for evolution.

Harry knew that it was slightly odd for him to work on that project, when it his goal was for him to be able to communicate freely and efficiently with his Swarm, but his thought was that if he had someone able to efficiently work on evolution when he was not able to then the swarm was much stronger. In the long run, it was to be a much better course of action than if he were to develop the human link first, in his opinion.

He had developed him early, and in doing so he was able to work on his evolutionary projects while Praegressus fell into a supporting role, and learning things that Harry himself had learned in the process. The basics were stored in the very genetics of the Swarm, but they had to experiment in order to further their understanding. Because Harry had had this help, he was able to eventually come up with the bare bones prototype of an organism that would invade a target organism's body, to learn about its biology.

The prototype was tested on some nearby fana, and after some small failures, namely the prototype had taken too much from the fans and killed them parasite style it was eventually dubbed by Harry to be a success. Harry was ready to move onto human testing. He would need to get to the base in order to do so, and he needed an acceptable target for the test.

Harry went through a mental runthrough of people he could test on. He wouldn't do it to his friends, because not only were they children but that would be wrong to do something that could be seen as an attack against a friend. For that same reason, he wouldn't do it to any of the people that were unknowns or could be considered innocent. He had considered using it on his relatives, but he did not wish to wait until he got back to them. Besides, by the way the conversation from earlier went, he might not need to ever return to the Dursleys.

But then his mind had wandered to the man named Severus Snape. Harry did not like the sorry excuse for a professor, and he was pretty sure that the man was not as innocent as Dumbledore professed he was. With that last thought in mind, Harry had planned for the infestation of Professor Severus Snape.

He would need to get back to Hogwarts in order to do anything, though, as he couldn't use any current Zerg to do what he needed.

* * *

Having been dubbed safe to travel by the friendly hospital staff, Harry was holding a portkey set to go off at a certain time. He was waiting for it to trigger, but he had never used a portkey before and did not know what to expect. He was nervous for this very reason. He was told to hold on tightly, and to not let go during the transit period by the one who had been kind enough to make the portkey for him.

Without any further ado, Harry's portkey had gone off, with Harry having a white-knuckled grip on the otherwise piece of trash turned portkey. If he were to ever have had the experience of being on a roller coaster, Harry would have likened the experience of a portkey to that.

Upon reaching Hogsmeade, Harry fell ungracefully to the ground, and his return had not gone unnoticed by those waiting for him. Dumbledore had given a slight smile with his twinkly eyes upon witnessing Harry's graceless arrival. He had given a slight chuckle, and had said, "If it makes you feel any better, my boy, I had not fared any better my first time."

With a slight dazed nod, Harry had then stood upon his own merit, not noticing the hand that had been offered to him nor the slight frown upon the face of the man that had offered it. Harry hadn't noticed the man's offered hand to help him up, nor the significance of Professor Severus Snape helping him in any way.

Severus was of two minds about Harry Potter. The man had had been quite brutal to the boy, as he had assumed the spawn of James Potter to be like the father. The potion's master had been shown otherwise from the actions of the Potter scion. It started with the first year.

Instead of what the man had assumed would happen with the boy, with a heavy use of "pranking" and soaking up the attention his celebrity status was sure to afford, the boy had not done what he thought he would. Instead of basking in the attention, the boy had shied from it. Instead of 'pranking' endlessly of others, and surrounding himself with others, he had either stopped other from going too far, or simply watched like the rest of the student population.

And, instead of being a cowardly celebrity child, the child had actively sought out wrongs for him to right. He had gotten his life in danger confronting what the dour man knew to be the Dark Lord. Sure, the boy had not known this, but he had charged in ahead like a Gryffindor to defend a priceless magical artifact.

Then, in second year, the boy had been brave enough to defeat a basilisk. He doubted that he had defeated a basilisk on his own, but he would heed Dumbledore's word on the matter. The man had never led him astray before, and so he had reviewed what he had observed of the boy deep within a meditation session free of any bias. The man had come to the conclusion that he had been wrong all along about what he had assumed about Lily's child. And Lily's child he was, as he may look more like his father, but he had in the end acted more like his mother than his father. He had been ashamed of his past actions, and he had resolved himself to make it up to the boy later on.

The only problem he had now, was finding a way to make it up to Lily's child.

* * *

The time finally came to when Harry was able to - infest, for lack of a better term - his potions professor. He knew that what he was doing could be considered quite Dark by most wizards, but he didn't really care; he wanted the best possible for his familiar.

He wondered if this was how mothers felt. He shook that thought out of his head.

Harry had stunned his target, catching the man by surprise, before he had moved towards the downed man. He had taken the parasite sleeping within his own robed pocket out, and by stroking the back of the adorable looking probe he had woken it up gently. It gave a slight squeak, recognizing its Overmind. Harry smiled at the worm in his hand, admiring it while stroking its back.

It was based off of a parasitic like race from long ago, buried deep within the Zerg's genes. It had a fattish body, with little feelers along itself to move about inside of an organism. It had a soft carapace, as it hadn't any reason for armour inside of another being. It had long tendrils that's whole purpose was to attach itself to the brain and brain stem so as to do some very invasive research into how the fauna worked. It was only about the size of Harry's thirteen-year-old smaller-than-average fingers, so that it wasn't easy to be noticed.

Harry moved the hair of his professor out of the way of the back of the neck, and had placed the Xeno on the soft skin there. Harry had sent, telepathically, the orders he had for this particular infestor, the newly dubbed Xeno Zerg. Immediately, the Zerg had begun to burrow into the back of the neck, and had slipped into a position so as to best accomplish its job. When it had sent confirmation that it had its feelers in place, to where the Swarm thought would best suit its job, Harry had reversed the stunner he had shot at his professor.

The professor hadn't woke yet, as the Xeno Zerg had exerted its influence on the teacher's mind in order to keep him sedated, so that Harry could make his escape unseen by the man. The plan was for Harry to remain unseen in this, and for the Xeno Zerg to eventually erase the memory from the man's mind from it ever happening.

But there was a problem of that, though, when he had looked up into the dreamy blue eyes of one Luna Lovegood. She was staring at him with her own signature dreamy expression, that of which she could only pull off, and her hair was flowing down her back. She had odd jewelry, some of which Harry would doubt a normal person would voluntarily add onto their person. Of course, Harry hadn't known fully who Luna Lovegood was. At least, not yet.

But as striking as her appearance may have been, Harry was more caught up on the fact that she was _looking at him_ , and that she had _seen him do what he did_. Then, the girl to which Harry had been mentally freaking out about, had said, "Hello Harry Potter. I see you've found the Umgubular Slashkilter."

* * *

 **A/N: I'm going to leave it there, because I'm an evil author.**


	9. Chapter 8: Experience as Equals

Chapter 8

Apparently, the strange girl named Luna Lovegood had been fine with the fact that Harry had just done something very suspicious to their teacher. In fact, she hadn't even asked what he had been doing, and instead she had been more curious about the Swarm than worrying over what Harry had been doing with it. She had only asked if she could see the swarm base, as if she knew what was there. Of course, she had said it in a very roundabout way and with different words for most of them.

When Harry had asked her to keep what she had seen to herself, he had been rather blase about her reassurance. Harry was quite glad that he had gotten her promise of secrecy. He would rather not go to Azkaban at thirteen.

Now Harry was getting ready for bed after the stressful situation he was in. He knew that Severus had been woken up the moment that Harry had entered into the Gryffindor common room by way of an update from the Xeno Zerg within the man's brain itself. The man had apparently waved his wand over himself, and had done nothing else. Then he had gone to his "lair" to make some potions. It appeared as though he was satisfied with his spells not finding anything wrong with him, but he was a potions master, and knew that some poisons could not be detected by spells. Harry assumed correctly that the man was brewing something to diagnose himself.

When Harry had laid his head down again to rest physically, he again connected to the Hivemind. This time, however, he merged his mind with that of the prototype. He was curious as to how it worked on the mental plane. He knew how it worked on the physical side, but he didn't have the foggiest as to the mental experiences of the organism he had created.

The experience was disorienting, as Harry was assaulted by not only what the Xeno Zerg was experiencing, but also what the infested man was experiencing as though Harry was him. He could see through the man's eyes, hear the man's thoughts, _another half a stir clockwise…_ , and feel as though his fingers were around the crystalline stirring rod. He could smell the nasty odor that made him want to make sick on the floor, and feel the slight ache of the older man's feet from standing all day.

It was almost like he were to be possessing one of his drones, but only passively.

But more than that was how he could feel being a part of the worm within the man's brain. He could feel the body heat from within the man's skull and neck, the wetness against his, no, the worm's soft carapace. He could feel through the feelers, as they reposition themselves, and monitor the electrical impulses of the brain they were imbedded inside of. He could almost 'taste' - as much as a being that had no taste buds could taste - the plaque-like substance that the worm fed off of, the result of early-onset alzheimer's, though Harry knew not what either was.

It was a surreal experience, a truly different feeling that Harry would swear he had not been able to have experienced in his wildest of dreams, this coming from a child training to become a full fledged wizard.

He was perfectly content to sit back and experience Severus Snape's night, for the entire time. He was particularly interested in letting the Xeno do its job. It was a very interesting thing when Harry had experienced Severus Snape's dream when the man had finally gone to sleep. He had given the man his privacy, of course, as he was not interested in whatever it was that the man did before his sleep. He had stopped his spying during that time, and had ordered for the Xeno not to commit anything to memory either. He knew that when the time came that he was fully integrated with the Swarm, his memory and the Swarm's memory would be one and the same, and perfect. He did not want that memory to be crystal clear in his mind, ever.

Did he mention that he didn't want that experience yet?

When he had returned, the man had been in a dreamland, and Harry knew that the man was sleeping by some strange sense of his. The same strange sense that Harry had when he was urged down to the chamber of secrets again.

Speaking of the Chamber, he supposed that he needed to visit his ancient friends. He figured the old mind of an ancient castle would be lonely by now, and wondering if he would ever keep his promise to return again.

He resolved to do it on the weekend. Perhaps Sunday, as he had promised Luna to show her the base on Saturday. Harry knew to wake up that morning when Snape had woken to his alarm spell signaling the morning.

Harry subsequently retracted his mind from that of his Xeno Zerg, and to his own body. He then let his own eyes pop open, and his body awaken from its sleep. He got up, made his morning ablutions, and then noticed the time. It was well into the morning, early enough that breakfast was not yet served. It appeared as though his teacher was a morning person, then. Not that he would expect such a thing, as the man was quite dour in the mornings. Then again, he was always dour.

He made his way down to the Great Hall anyway, curious as to what happens when someone makes it there early. He was happy to note that he was not the only one in the Hall, with some of his fellow students - five at most - sitting at one lone table with their own breakfasts. They were accompanied by a few teachers, one he knew to be Professor Bathsheda Babbling, and surprisingly another was Professor Minerva McGonagall. The students themselves were mostly older, with the only exception being Luna Lovegood.

Luna was the first to notice him, having been the one seated opposite the Great Hall's main door, and she smiled dreamily at him. She had then given a nod, and gestured to an unoccupied seat that had appeared magically beside her, pulled out for him. The quiet conversation stopped momentarily, as each one of the table had turned their heads to look at Harry.

To Harry's utter shock, McGonagall had given his a slight nod and a smile, as well as Professor Babbling before the two had returned to their conversation of what Harry assumed to be the relationship between Runes and Transfiguration. The other, older students gave similar friendly motions before they returned their attentions to what they were doing before.

Having felt accepted, Harry finally moved onward to the seat beside Luna at the round breakfast table. As soon as he settled into the seat and up to the table, before him appeared his favourite breakfast - apparently, the house elves of Hogwarts had taken note of what he liked. He felt pride that the humble, powerful elves had gone through the effort to take note of what he liked to have every Wednesday morning.

Noticing his curious looks around the table, Luna had said to him, "We're the people that like to get up early in the morning, us seven, so we make it a point to meet here every morning. It's quite relaxing, to have this moment of the early morning to ourselves and let go."

"Let go?" Harry asked back, in the same low voice that everyone silently agreed to use so early in the morning.

That time it was his Professor McGonagall that answered, "Relaxed, no school talk, and a time when students can be more informal with your teachers, Harry." Harry was slightly shocked that _Professor McGonagall_ was talking more like a friend to him, than a Professor, of all the teachers to do so. And she had called him _Harry_ instead of the ever-present _Mr. Potter_.

"We _are_ human, though students often forget that fact. It would be best if you didn't look at us as your teachers here; here, we are just eight people having breakfast together as equals." This time it was from the Runes professor, having said it after recognising the look of slight shock on Harry's face. Eventually Harry nodded, and the breakfast continued on.

Small talk sparked up between the others again, and he was able to place names for the unfamiliar faces before him. A proper introduction was made between them all, and Harry had placed the names of Wilda Nursing-Tad, James Gilbert, Seth Minadra, and Hillary Mildred to the other four faces of the students.

Harry was perfectly content to remain silent and listen to the quiet conversations of the people around him. He was happy to feel like an equal at the breakfast setting for once. It was nice to not have the feeling of being placed on a pedestal of what others thought him to be like, looked at with concern for being just a kid with a certain killer out for his blood _again_ , and to be able to be treated like a responsible person.

When everyone's chosen breakfast and morning tea had been finished, the there was a seamless transition between the relaxed and informal atmosphere back to the boarding school standards the Harry was so used to. The people of the Breakfast Club had then left to do whatever it was they had planned that morning, and Harry was headed back to the Gryffindor commons, to work more with his familiar, to review the data he had gotten from the Xeno.

From the data collected from the Xeno, a successful organism made specifically to - although invasively - harmlessly research a species that had yet to be researched, Harry had gotten a few ideas of what to make with that data in mind. Harry had come up with the idea of a MediZerg, an organism that would live in a symbiotic relationship with its host, providing it with benefits that the zerg itself has, while bringing the benefits that Harry had wanted in the first place. It would also have the added benefit of being able to consume its host if that host was a threat to the Swarm in any way. After the consummation of the host, the MediZerg could morph into - depending on how much biomass was consumed - a Zergling or a similar small unit; preferably a Larvae if close enough to the creep.

He was 'woken' by the hivemind, by which he had ordered to monitor his senses for that very reason, so that he didn't have another hospital trip, and miss another month or so of schooling. He then had another few uneventful few days spent in routine, with significant progress towards his MediZerg idea during the nights, and schooling during the days.

Then came the time for him to introduce Luna to the Swarm on Saturday.


	10. Chapter 9: Fangirl Oddities

**Chapter 9**

* * *

The time came for Harry to show Luna the hive cluster he had grown from a single Drone unit, as Luna had requested of him in her own way. Thankfully, Luna was a second year, so she was able to have her own broom. And have a broom, she did. The two met after the lunch hour, and then Harry had led her, on the broom, out to where the hive cluster was located. When they got close enough to faintly see the image that the hive made, Harry heard a faint squeal of delight from Luna.

They set down on the creep below, and Luna gasped at the squishiness of the material. Then, she had run straight towards the closest Zerg, which happened to be a Larvae. The Larvae had reared up and had bared its pincers at the fast-approaching blonde.

Abruptly, Harry's vision and mind had switched from the normal occupation of his own body to that of the Larvae. The vision he was treated to was a hazy sight, and Luna was overlaid with a glow of red, a visual representation of what the Hivemind perceived as a threat.

Harry had forgotten about the way the Swarm thought of non-Swarm: If you weren't part of the Swarm, then you were an enemy. Even worse for the situation, Luna was in was that she was running at one of the most vulnerable units within the Swarm: the Larvae. She was about to be attacked, and to fix that, Harry had ordered her to be added as a friend in the friend/foe registry.

With that done, the hostility of the Larvae stopped, and the Larvae then went back down into a docile position. It was just in time for it to withstand the assault that was a young girl being excited about a "cute" animal. Harry was felt bad for the poor thing; its twenty units of armour proved to be useless in the face of that particular monster.

Ah, well, it will still survive. If it doesn't, it will just be reborn again.

What made it worse was her dreamy exclamation of "It's adorable!"

"Yeah, yeah they kind of are. Wait, what? You actually like them?" Harry asked disbelievingly of Luna.

"What's not to like? They are so adorable! And think of what they can do!" Harry looked at her, amazed before he broke out into a large grin. This meant he didn't have to keep his familiar such a secret! It was a very large weight off of Harry's shoulders, having a confidante in this sort of thing would be essential for his sanity to remain intact.

"Well, if you like the Larvae, you'll love the rest too!"

* * *

Now it must be reiterated that Harry was just a thirteen-year-old boy, and while in some cultures that was enough to consider him a man, it was not enough for him to be able to handle a very eccentric twelve-year-old girl "fangirling" over what he was showing her.

It must also be said that despite Harry's odd ability to know things he shouldn't, he was still an oblivious boy. That didn't stop him from caring for his friends, though, and what was happening set Luna on a fast track to becoming one of Harry's best friends.

All of that being said, the Hivemind was not either of those two things. In fact, the Hivemind was originally designed to complement the strengths of the Overmind by providing both a unique point of view the overmind might not have, and as a sort of personal assistant to act in a supporting role. This meant that when Harry was being his oblivious self in regards to much of the situation at hand, the Hivemind was not.

The Hivemind took in the situation in stride. It observed the fact that -though it's squeal should be considered that - the human girl did not immediately recoil in horror upon seeing the swarm's members conducting business as usual. In fact, when the girl had seen the infestation of a human, she requested to see more.

The Hivemind might not be an expert, but generally Terrans, and it suspected humanity as a whole did not have even a similar response to the girl. So it wasn't the Hive's fault that it suspected the request to see more of the Swarm was only part of a nefarious plot of some sort. From this, it was understandable that the Hivemind mistook the squeal of delight as a form of war cry followed by a physical attack by charging at one of the most vulnerable members of the Swarm.

The Squeal itself sounded like an attack all on its own, after all.

So it was a surprise when instead of the attack they were expecting - save the Overmind - the Swarm was treated to the girl fawning and "fangirling" - a term taken from the memory of the Overmind - over them.

As Harry showed off his familiar, all the while the Swarm appeared as though the various members of said Swarm were preening in the light that was their dictator's praise, the Hivemind took the various idle minds to go over - again - what was observed in memory.

A stray thought had been entertained by the Hivemind, derived from this process of observing the interactions between the pair: The Hivemind had seen from the Overmind's memories the details of a feudal system. It had also noted that there existed a tradition amongst humans to mate for life.

The entertaining of those thoughts led the Hivemind to believe it to be a good idea for the Overmind to have the Unit Luna Lovegood as a Queen.

* * *

After the two's small excursion to Harry's first Hive, they still had time left in the day. So, Harry had made the split decision to show Luna to a place where very few, if any, had been before.

Besides, Harry thought it was about time that he visit his old aged friends in a castle's basement. Not a dungeon, mind you, but a basement. It still amused Harry when some people got annoyed when Harry referred to the place as a basement, so he would continue to use that term to spite them in a passive-aggressive way.

He wanted to bring along his eccentric blonde friend to meet the four because he thought that she would get along quite well with at least one of them.

However, when Rowena Ravenclaw and Luna Lovegood were eyeing each other with rapt attention, and identical expressions exposed, Harry thought that perhaps it might not have been such a good idea after-all.

At exactly the same time, both Harry and Salazar had cleared their collective throats to break the spellbound - and for all they knew it could have been - gaze of their friends.

Regardless if the staring contest was magically induced, the two both lost said contest by way of changing their focus to the other magical beings in the cave-like room. Luna had acknowledged Harry's presence by way of humming in an inquisitive tone, while Rowena had simply asked, "Yes?"

When they both continued to look on with innocent expressions in the face of questioning looks, Salazar sighed exasperatedly, and asked, "Is there a reason why you and Miss Lovegood had just ogled each other so thoroughly?"

In sync, both Luna and Rowena said, "Didn't you all know it was international Star-The-First-Woman-You-Were-Properly-Introduced-To-In-The-Face-Day? I'm surprised, it's quite well-known." Following the possible - somehow - rehearsed reply, the two had turned to face each other again and grinned widely.

The eccentric pair's actions led Harry to further cement his belief that perhaps it hadn't been a good idea to introduce Luna to the founders. In fact, he now firmly believed he had just made a rather terrible mistake, especially when Helena's Frown-of-Disapproval had appeared on her face, Godric had brought his palm firmly to his face, and "Sal" had given another one of his sighs of exasperation.

How was Harry to know that a Rowena Ravenclaw and Luna Lovegood pair would only result in absolute chaos and chronic migraines for all known life?

Well, aside from his eerie ability to know what most was not able to know before they were to know it, he wasn't to know.

Perhaps Harry should pay more attention to his feelings then since that was how he knew things he was not meant to anyway.

* * *

 **A/N: So, it has been awhile since I had posted anything of this story, and I kinda wanted to find out what happened myself so I thought I would write some more of it.**

 **Hope you like it, please review!**


	11. Chapter 10: Traces

**A/N: Despite what could quite possibly be popular belief, there will be no pairings. Not even Canon ones, unless they were already together.**

* * *

 **Chapter 10**

After the two girls got over their initial interaction, Harry had proceeded to introduce hi old friends to his newer one. Then, Harry had hung out with, and update, his friends on what he had been so busy with.

Complete with instant fussing from Helena when he had made a passing remark about having been in the hospital. When Harry had - rather pathetically as he secretly like it when someone cared so much - attempted to fight the insistent fussing and closeness of the Weasley-esk woman, said woman had noticed something odd on the boy's forearm with her very astute eyes of ethereal energy. She had taken hold of it and had brought it closer for inspection. Her eyes had widened, and she had said, "Godric, I think you should take a look at this."

The amused faces that had been enjoying the spectacle had immediately been replaced with curious looks. They weren't worried yet, as they knew by then that the formidable woman was almost always worried. Harry had stopped his weak protests long before then and instead had looked on curiously as the aforementioned man lumbered on over to inspect the area indicated to him by Helena.

It was only when Godric's eyebrows rose in surprise did the others start to allow themselves to worry. "What?" Harry asked, "What is it?" He wanted to know what was such a big deal.

People normally woke up from comas with a scar on their arms, right?

See, despite him thinking that he had not left a trace of him doing anything, Sirius Black had, in fact, left a trace in the form of some scarring on Harry's right forearm.

There is something to be said about how magic affects the human body and its healing process: when magic was used in a process meant and designed to aid in healing, it generally did not leave any scarring. For example, Harry was splayed open upon an operating table for various medical professionals to see his insides like he was a Russian nesting doll cracked open. When he was put back together again, unlike poor Humpty, not a scar remained. However, when magic was used for a purpose meant to harm the recipient of the magics or anyone along the process, it left its own, unique scarring.

It was as if magic itself wanted to leave behind some evidence of its misuse.

It helped immensely when someone wanted to determine how someone else died, or a healer determining if a particular operation would be morally sound.

The method by which this analysis was conducted was used by Godric to analyse the part of scar tissue on Harry's forearm. It was similar to how someone would match fingerprints or how a particular wound was made.

The problem with the method came from being able to know what could have made the specific identifying marker.

Godric was uniquely suited for this because he was the resident expert in Dark Magics of his time, and his expertise had only grown over the years of supervising the school and coming in contact with it.

It had come as quite a shock to Harry to find out that his house's namesake had been both a practitioner and expert of Dark Arts instead of Godric's coworker, friend, and sometimes rival Salazar Slytherin. In fact, Salazar was a Healer, a profession that was complemented by his affinity with potioneering.

When Harry had informed them of what witches and wizards thought of the four in the modern day, Godric had laughed heartily, Helena had her patented Frown-of-Disapproval firmly fixed at the rest of the wizarding world, Rowena had only a mysterious, happy smile, and Salazar had a decidedly less-than-pleased expression.

Oh, how strange it was that history was changed so dramatically, and perhaps simply from Sal normally having a rather disagreeable personality.

Sal's dour disposition aside, Harry was worried by the look Godric was giving him.

* * *

Something the human species tended to overlook was how absolutely violent its children tended to be. It was only through the process of maturing and parents instilling their morals into the children that they learned how to be civilised.

That wasn't to say it got rid of the inner demon that craved to be… less than civilised. No, it was merely tamed - and in some cases trained - over time. It was still there, waiting to be let loose on a path of death, destruction, and ultimately self-demolition.

That was why, when Harry was fully informed of what the information was that was hidden in the scar tissue, he was a bit peeved. He had an urge to seek out and feed whoever had done it to his familiar, or to play with them in a very mad-scientist sort of way.

Both ideas were supported by his familiar as the best kind of enemy was a dead enemy. However, the Hivemind had reminded Harry of the fact that it would be particularly dangerous for him to do so in his vulnerable state, as well as not knowing anything viable about his opponent.

The only thing that Harry did know about his opponent was that he knew how to use some of the Darkest of magics there was: what happens when you use medical magics for an evil, malevolent way. That, and they did not yet want to have Harry dead. It stood to reason that if they were so close to being able to cast a spell at Harry, they could have easily killed him.

Godric had informed him that whoever had done it, had used a particular spell to draw blood. Alone, it was harmless, but it was originally developed to allow people to easily perform blood magics.

Blood magics like rituals.

That blood taken from him could easily be used for a cause that Harry would not necessarily approve of. If the scar was any indication - and unfortunately it was - that was exactly what happened.

Now all they needed to do was find out what Harry's blood was used for.

* * *

As time passed, and Harry had been successfully distracted from his revenge - themed thoughts by his five friends, he had again relaxed.

Eventually, their meeting had led to a study session for Harry. It was inevitable, considering that four of the six in the room were accomplished scholars and professors.

Harry was happy to note that Luna was as interested in the material as he was - that was to say, a great deal.

Harry knew that a lot of what he was learning would be looked upon with a dubious eye by most of the Wizarding World.

But he knew that it was not necessarily the tools that were inherently evil, but how you used them. Unless, of course, those tools could only be used for evil.

In the case of Dark Magic, it was either magics that were twisted from its original purpose or that were specifically created to do harm. It meant that any hex or curse was Dark, and something that was supposed to heal or protect was Light. At least, those were the classifications that were taught to him by Godric.

When Harry had asked, "What about cooking charms, or the levitation spell?"

It was Helena that replied, "The cooking charms would be Light, as they are used to feed you, which is protecting you from starvation. The levitation charm, on the other hand, would be Grey, as it neither harms nor protects."

"Unless you use the cooking charms on someone or use the levitation spell to save someone from falling, in which case they would be Dark and Light, respectively." That time it was Salazar that had spoken.

Now, using magic to harm someone to protect something whether it be an idea, an object, or a person would still be Dark. Magic didn't care that someone was about to be cursed; it only cared that they cursed someone else. The idiotic possessiveness shown didn't matter to magic, only that someone was harmed in the gluttonous pursuit of physical belongings and possessions. Lastly, it couldn't care less about whether someone was defending their ideas, it only cared that they attacked another's.

Magic, it seemed, was quite the pacifist if this was how _it_ classified _itself_.

But Harry supposed that everyone had a bit of a Dark side, and a normal person would label themselves in a similar manner given the circumstances magic found itself in.

 _Well, look at me, personifying magic,_ Harry thought to himself.

All things considered, it was a fairly productive and relaxing meeting that Harry and Luna had had with the founders of Hogwarts.

As the two made their way back to the school, they were content to stay in their companionable silence. That was until Luna got bored and started humming the Hogwarts school song, _backwards_.

* * *

 **A/N: Hope you like the chapter! Now, when I mentioned the bit about the nesting dolls… I may never be able to look at them the same way again.**

 **Please review, and thank you for reading.**


	12. Chapter 11: Warnings of Inner Animals

Chapter 11

* * *

Over the next few true weeks, Harry and Luna had gone through with hastily-made plans to visit the founders. During their week-long stays compressed into only hours, they had made leaps and bounds into their magical knowledge, both theoretical _and_ practical applications.

The most notable accomplishment for Harry was the _very_ quick grasp he had gained an arguably one of the most difficult pieces of transfiguration magics known to the modern wizarding world: the animagus transformation.

Something of significance about the difficult transformation, and had apparently been forgotten over time, was that it was exponentially easier if the prospective animagus had a true familial bond, as the familiar helped to stabilise the trainee's magic.

So, over the course of months compressed to a week, Harry was able to finally transform fully into his inner animal. However, it was not an animal at all like that of anything that had ever been seen before. Well, by any non-invasive species on Earth. The Zerg had seen something similar to it, but not exactly the same. Thankfully, the Swarm was able to provide the necessary research in order for Harry to transform and _not_ end up dead.

See, one of the many things that made the animagus transformations so difficult for the first time was that the person had to extensively study the animal in question before the transformation could take place without someone dying. In the founder's time, the task was carried out by the dissection - and sometimes vivisection - of the animal to learn where everything was before doing the transformation. In the modern day, thankfully the process did not need to be so horrifyingly gruesome, as there were texts available for the study of the animals without the need for a more hands-on approach. Surprisingly enough, it was even outlawed in Harry's time to torture an animal in such a way, thankfully. The Hivemind had known all about the particular Zerg biology as buried within its memory in the form of its DNA and other chemical databases rested designed for the very subject he was made into.

It was a cross between what was zerg, and what the zerg knew to be protoss - whoever they were. Apparently, it was supposed to be impossible for a protoss and a zerg to even be compatible enough to last longer than a very short amount of time, before detonating. From what Harry knew from what the xenozerg had obtained, he knew that any cross or integration of human and zerg would be very difficult, on the level of what the Manhattan Project was for early twentieth century's United States. However, as difficult combining a zerg and a human genetic code was, the zerg memory banks indicated that a protoss/zerg relationship would make a human/zerg a cakewalk in comparison.

Harry's animagus form was an ardent image to behold, as well as it was an imposing figure. When Harry had done the normal thing in familiarising himself with the habits, instincts, and whatnot of his form, as all witches and wizards did before attempting their transformation so as to both know what it was and not be caught off-guard by the instincts, he had been pleasantly surprised to learn that it was not unlike what he did with his familiar.

However, inside Harry's meditation of his form, he was able to view it work in its natural habitat. That was to say, the being managed the Swarm. He had even been able to witness the combat capabilities of him, as it was defending against some imagined adversaries. Harry took all of this to mean his form was a combat-oriented body meant to house the Overmind.

Harry quickly realised he could not very well keep referring to his alternate form as simply "it", so he decided that it needed a name. When he was experiencing and eventually controlling the meditative state - having graduated from simply experiencing to actively controlling = he was always referred to as "Overmind" by his family, his Swarm. So, a name had not been able to have come from them. However, Harry had struck some random inspiration one day, when he had looked at one of his classmate's chicken scratched scrawl he called handwriting, and the only thing he could make out was a "word" that looked like a name: Amon. When he saw it, Harry had gotten one of his feelings again, and as always, he listened to them. Hence, Harry's animagus form was dubbed Amon.

Little did he know that "Amon" was described as "the universe's most ancient evil" from whence the zerg came.

When Harry had completed his first transformation, a process that took some time and plenty of effort, his friends and tutors had finally realised the full extent of Amon. Harry had told them excitedly and extensively about Amon throughout his efforts of becoming an animagus, but the sheer impossibility of what they were told and that which could not be expressed by Harry fully sunk in.

* * *

Red. Red and Dark were the best ways to describe what Amon looked like. Immediately following the transformation, Harry in Amon form stood from his "kneeling" position, having fallen due to the difficulty of the transition. In his full height, Amon stood at a proud three metres. If the wings protruding from his back were to be counted, the tips added another metre. Amon had no mouth, only a smooth, shadowed face where eyes were. The eyes themselves did not outwardly appear as anything even close to similar to any being that the collective witnesses had ever found in nature. Even Luna had a hard time placing the deep redness, and something _else_ that her vocabulary was not adequate enough to describe fully, in one of her hypothesised fauna. The aforementioned wings were kept neatly folded, so as to allow for them not to easily catch in narrow spaces, while the feather reminded those fortunate enough to witness one of a phoenix's feathers. However, instead of the subtle change from red to gold of a phoenix's feathers, Amon had his look as though the wings started as a white inferno and a subtle yet harsh change from white to blood red; it was a fleshy blood red, too.

His legs were nearly non-existent, as he had not the bipedal structure the humans had, and instead used razor sharp tendrils to support the weight. From the way the tips rested lightly upon the stone flooring of the chamber, it was obvious they were sharp enough to pierce the dense rock with ease. Harry knew this, which was why he took such great care with the way he rose from his previous "kneeling" position, he did not wish to create tendril-sized holes just from standing.

What made Amon's method of locomotion so eerie was not the subtly obvious way it could act as the finest of stiletto shaped swords. Harry knew from his meditation stage that the tendrils could puncture the best of alloys, as sharp as it was. Harry also knew that they could be used with deadly efficiency in other ways like with the way it could be used as a bastard-child of razor wire and a whip, so sharp were the edges.

So eerie, though, was not just from this. Instead it was more of the way the shadows themselves seemed to cling to Amon's form, shielding the body from prying eyes in order to make it incredibly difficult for an untrained or relatively weak eyes from discerning details; the shadows were especially careful to protect limbs and the more obvious combative features hidden, including the defensive features like protective spiked from the hard, armoured carapace of Amon's armour.

Again, Amon had not a mouth, yet Harry knew that the form could communicate; Amon had taunted the make-belief enemies of his swarm. It was thought-speech - telepathy, using something called psionics which Harry assumed was just another term for magic. So, it was with a deep, mental reverberation that Harry "spoke" to his relatively old friends, "What do you think?"

Godric laughed.

* * *

By the time December showed how cold its heart really was, Luna had managed to complete her animagus transformation under the watchful gaze of the resident ancient castle composed of four ever older minds.

Luna had gained the form of an otter. When she found out, Rowena happily commented that some cultures connected the otter to laughter, curiosity, truth =, and patience. She had also added that she was an otter animagus as well.

It was also around December that a fair few other events had happened.

Harry had managed to fully master his unique form, and of course, no-one had mentioned just how impossible it was for someone to have a form like this. With the mastering of an animagus form usually came some perks related to the form, anywhere from instincts to physical prowess. For example, in the case of Professor Minerva McGonagall, a well-known animagus, she had gained the ability of increased balance and a more keen perception for moving objects. A more interesting but humorous point of this also came from the amusing penchant for catnip.

In Harry's case, he had gained a heightened ability to multitask. Before his heightened ability, he had been training over time to increase his ability to communicate with his Swarm as well as doing other things. He had gotten to the point where he could both be aware of, as well as minimally interact with his surrounding while managing the local hive cluster via issuing orders. After the mastering of the Amon form, Harry found a significant improvement came in that area; he was able to effortlessly get it to the level where he could actively be about one topic, speak with someone about a different conversation entirely, do general management of the Zerg, _and_ conduct in-depth experimentation and research in the spawning pool and evolution chamber.

It tended to make some people fidgety when he was able to fully pay attention to what was going on in class and read a book. He had even answered the Professor's questions correctly when they asked questions because of his reading a book on a different subject. The only downside was that it made Harry had a slight attention deficit disorder, applicable to if he would try to focus solely on one thing.

All of that said nothing of the Swarm, however. Under the nurturing watch of their Overmind, they had expanded rapidly. Harry had deemed it a necessity to create more hatcheries but in different locations. He had thought that because he had three hatcheries already in a hive, it would be the most efficient for him to distribute the zerg's unique "manufacturing" process across a larger area. After all, it would be detrimental to the Swarm's survival if they had all of their population in one area in a potential invasion.

It had taken a significantly less amount of time to get the new hive cluster up and running as Harry had a lot more drones to help with the startup materials mixed with some overlords to ferry some water. All of the extra help meant that Harry didn't need to actually be at the point of interest. Harry had used the drones to gather the needed biomass to allow for three hatcheries to be set up. He utilised the overlords for the water to be pumped into the evolving hatcheries and for Harry to be able to actually see in a top-down view of what was happening with their powerful senses.

He had placed the new five cluster nearer to the South, away from the known acromantula nest near the North. His Swarm was quite able to set up rapidly. It did not take long for Harry to set up a hatchery, and then various defences as he was very conscious of something coming across a developing cluster with the minimal defences of what zerglings he had sent.

His worries were not unfounded as, incidentally, the new cluster might have been set up away from the nest of the resident scary harries, but it was closer to the castle itself. This led to the centars noticing their presence and in turn Hagrid being informed. As intelligent beings with a pacifist take on life, the centaurs had wisely opted out of flat-out attacking an unknown force that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, and had instead informed Hagrid, in case he had experience with the forest's "ailment" where they had not.

This led to a contingent made up of Hagrid and a group of five centars, all of them armed with their weapons of choice. When they had reached the area in question - far away from his main hive cluster - they had all stopped at the sight of the creep. Hagrid stepped forward with a jar in hand, intent on collecting a sample of the odd fleshy "plant" covering the forest floor. However, what none of the group had predicted was a warning of sorts from said pink, snow-covered "flesh".

In exaggerated slowness, a pink spike with slowly spreading barbs rose out of the ground, directly in front of Hagrid's large, red nose. Hagrid's eyes widened, spooked by the manifestation of the pike. He had summarily dubbed collecting a sample a lost cause at that moment and had quickly backed off to a safe distance. He counted his lucky stars that the _whatever it was_ had a presence of mind and morals to give a warning and not preemptively attack.

It was then that both Hagrid and the gathered centaurs had come across an intelligent species, and not a rage-induced monstrous plant intent on taking over the proud first. It was still yet to be seen just _how_ intelligent the being was, but the actions taken at least resembled that of what most any animal did; some animals would hiss, some would rattle, some would growl, and some would puff themselves up, but the actions always meant the same thing: A warning. It seemed that the invasive species that took residence in the forest were no different, and thus was to be treated with the same respect as all the others did.

* * *

 **A/N: I hope you all enjoyed and I also hope that you'll be kind enough to leave a little review.**

 **Sorry for the slow updates, but I've been busy.**


	13. Chapter 12: A Xel'Nagian Zerg

**Chapter 12:**

* * *

Harry was intensely glad that his gentle giant friend did not pursue the matter of his Swarm and had taken that message. He would watch to see how he would handle the information, and if he liked it, he would perhaps properly introduce him to his familiar. Maybe he would even let him join when he perfected the zergification of humans - or what the zerg called "Terrans". Harry supposed it was a less sexist way of referring to the species as another word for Earth _was_ Terra.

Speaking of the zergification process, the founders had offered up their bodies as cadavers seeing as they did not need them anymore. Harry was very surprised to learn that preservation charms worked wonders on more than just food. So with some actual cadavers to test what Harry learned from Snape's "implant", he thought that the terran zergification process would speed up nicely.

Harry reflected on how well his attempts at re-creating the acromantula were after he had fully tested the dead bodies of the two that attacked his drones so long ago. Eventually, he had been able to fully integrate the acromantula genome into a functioning zerg unit. Now, Harry was able to evolve larvae into an acromantula via a modified version of what was known as a hydralisk den. The hydralisks needed vespene gas, though, which Harry didn't know how to get or substitute for so he just thought he would use the acromantula in its stead. The sole function of the den for the acromantula was to manufacture the specialised spider web silk that the newly dubbed acrozergs could not create on their own. They could create normal acromantula webbing like that which could be made into acromantula silk material; it was a highly sought after clothing material based on its natural spell resistance. From biomass, the acrozergs created the natural silks, but they needed a larger "factory" in order to create the more complex silks Harry had thought up.

One string was a red colour that would slowly stun the victim that was caught within its webs for the zerg to collect at a later date. Unfortunately, this effect only lasted for as long as the webbing touched the victim without a time delay for when they woke after it was removed, and the effect took time in subduing the victim. Thus, the red web could not be used for combat with an enemy, but for non-lethal traps, it was fine.

Another was a striking green, meant to be strung up in little trip-wires or shot out at things that had an imbued curse in it that would kill anything that touched it save for a simple friend-foe registry that the "spiderden" set based on the Swarm's pre-existing friend-foe registry of a whitelist type system. It was based on one of Harry's nightmares in that he heard screaming, before a bright green flash, and then an abrupt silence to the screams.

The last silk Harry had engineered for the acrozerg to carry was clear and thus invisible. It was charmed to act as something not dissimilar to razor-wire in function. It was not nearly as strong as the normal acromantula webbing, none were, but what it lacked in strength it made up for in its ability to seamlessly slice through anything it touched with seemingly no friction so long as the enchantment was active, which was toggleable as per the zerg's discretion. Harry thought it insanely creepy and cool to see something strung up and restrained by invisible tethers only to suddenly become millions of itty-bitty pieces.

He was also fairly happy with himself that the acrozergs were fairly close in stats to what they were loosely based off of, the acrozergs' stats were as follows:

Acrozerg:  
Minerals = 75  
Biomass = 375 Kilogrammes  
Water = 7 500 mL  
Time = 28 minutes  
HEALTH = 80 Points  
Psi Supply = 1  
Ground Attack = See acrozerg silk  
Air Attack = See acrozerg silk  
No Armor  
Total Volume Storage = 500 mL  
Special = Uses manufactured, specialised acromantula silk, in order to set traps or fire as a projectile. Can hold a volume storage.

However, that did not specify the stats of the acrozerg silk itself, it only stated that the ground and air attack were the same. Thus, the acrozerg silk was as follows:

Red Acrozerg Silk (per litre):  
Biomass = 1 Kg  
Water = 100 mL  
Time = 5 minutes  
HEALTH = 0.5 Points  
Psi Supply = 0  
Attack = 0  
Special = Stuns victims caught in its hold, but because of the half point of health, it needs regular maintenance.

Active Green Acrozerg Silk (per litre):  
Biomass = 30 Kg  
Water = 1 L  
Time = 20 minutes  
HEALTH = 1 Point  
Psi Supply = 0.5  
Attack = 5 000 000 HP  
Armor = Ignores Magical Attacks.  
Special = Has a friend/foe registry maintained by the hivemind, hence the Psi requirement. All of its attacks are wasted if it is destroyed before something touches it. Fired as a projectile with 10 mL volleys for 50 000 critical damage. Ignores magical armour, but is blocked by physical items.

Active Invisible Acrozerg Silk (per litre):  
Biomass = 10 Kg  
Water = 300 mL  
Time = 8 minutes  
Health = 5 Points  
Psi Supply = 1  
Armor = 2 Points Magical.  
Attack = 1000 Piercing  
Special = This silk ignores most armour and is resistant to being destroyed while its attack is "active". Requires 1 Psi supply per litre of silk to monitor its state and its friend/foe registry. It is fired at 10 mL volleys for 10 Piercing damage likened to an arrow that ignores armour and shielding of any kind other than magical.

Harry loved magic, and he loved his Swarm, so it only made sense to him to mix the two together. He had no way of knowing that what he was doing was utterly terrifying to "normal people"; he only thought he was playing with a cute pet of his.

While on the topic of pets, Harry thought it prudent to visit Hedwig at some point as it had been a while since he greeted her. With that mental notion firmly planted in his mind, Harry let his collective foci drift to other, more important topics. One such topic being the dilemma of whether or not to bring Hedwig into the Swarm; he solved it by thinking he could probably just ask her. He supposed the same could be said for others, too.

Another topic of general constant interest to Harry was how he could possibly make his familiar more safe than it already was. At that time, the time he received the founder's cadavers, he had wisely decided to set up a subdermal based within the main chamber. He had a hatchery with a spawning pool and an evolution chamber so that even if his main bases had capitulated, he would be able to continue to produce the basic warriors, the drones, and continue his research.

Salazar Slytherin had taken some convincing before he had agreed to give Harry a map of the infamous Chamber and all of its connections. There were a few entrances/exits that reached outside of the castle, as well as within it. Essentially, so long as someone knew the parseltongue passwords, they could get nearly anywhere in the castle from the Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade, within the castle, and a select few other locations far away from the school itself.

Harry did a mental happy dance at the fact that his deductions about there being more entrances than just Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

Harry had been harshly reminded of the basilisk's corpse within the chamber when he prepared to grow a new base in the foundations of Hogwarts, as it was very close to where he wanted it to be set up. He had his drones move the beast out-of-the-way before he had the drones begin to set up the hatchery et al. Harry and Luna had been taught how to enchant something to be bigger on the inside and add a featherweight effect to it, so it was filled with the necessary startup biomass. Harry and Luna merely added the necessary water. At the time they used the bag, Harry's celebrate, specifically designed to aid in the Swarm's evolution research, had looked upon the idea of bigger spaced than it should be physically possible and was attempting to include it within the Swarm. Both the cerebrate and Harry knew that there would be many failed attempts before anything good came of it.

After the base had been fully setup, during which the founders had been present the entire time in spectral form, Harry started in on an analysis of "Daisy's" body; he had asked for Salazar's permission first, of course, what with her having been his creation.

What Harry found excited him greatly. He had found, failure after failure as Daisy's body was simply too destructively intense that he was unable to discern anything from the she-beast, that it was almost as if she did not _have_ DNA. He would need more subjects.

* * *

After Harry had added the zenozerg to his Professor's brain stem, he had been very careful to not change anything about the man's environment, as that would have defeated the whole purpose of the experiment as the results would have been different than normal. People didn't tend to act the same way alone rather than when they knew they were being watched, no matter how much integrity they had, and that same analogy could be applied to how people acted in similarly differing environments.

The best outcome of what Harry had decided on his method and later standard procedure was that he had been able to gain a nice, supple control test before he introduced any variables. He had determined the amount of time he had allotted enough time to have collected enough data before he tried anything, so Harry had ordered for the copying of all of the man's long-term memories to the hivememory. Before that point, Harry had been hesitant because of the previously-stated reasons.

However, Harry had ordered for the man's privacy to be respected, so he had everything that could be defined as personal or confidential information "deleted" from the hivememory databanks as soon as it was found. Only when the information was censored and vetted did Harry allow himself to sync with the hivememory once again to receive the information. It wouldn't do for Harry to know personal things about his professor; it would make it incredibly awkward, after all.

To guarantee that the sync for such a large amount of data, Harry had decided that it would be best if he were to do the transfer in his Amon form, as it was always more efficient in its connectivity to his Swarm than his modified human brain. He had gone to his local Chamber of Secrets to guarantee his privacy as he did not yet wish to out himself as an animagus, let alone a magical creature.

He transformed amongst his Swarm.

What Harry did not realise was the fact that the act of changing into his alternate form would alert anyone in the castle, despite his private location, simply because people were able to feel the sudden change in power level in the area, much like how a person would perceive temperature. He did not know of this, of course, so Harry had simply synced with the hivememory databanks. All-in-all the entire process took a meagre five minutes.

While he was there, though, Harry decided to visit his subterranean base seeing as it was his lunch period, so he wasn't expected anywhere. Thus, Harry stalked around the underground base in his Amon form, enjoying how surreal the experience of becoming something else entirely, as well as walking amongst his people like an adored God or Emperor, but not to forget the immersive feeling of the experience as a sum of both of the previously stated experiences.

Harry could most certainly get used to it, and he decided he should change into his Amon form more often.

* * *

Dumbledore started, though one would have to be fairly familiar with the man to notice it, and a quick cursory inspection of the rest of the occupants of the Great Hall showed most everyone was in a similar state of discomfort, even many of the students.

Dumbledore had been surprised because according to his senses, everything was fine, but then there was a sudden spike in power level had his senses reeling in surprise and thus Dumbledore as well. It was an unexpected, and very drastic difference. It was as if someone had taken the comfortable room temperature of twenty degrees celsius and multiplied it by two to reach a hot forty-six degrees celsius. If it were temperature, the populace of Hogwarts would have been sweating.

In fact, the students and staff of Hogwarts might as well have been sweating with the way their magical senses and cores were reacting. There was a powerful magical source nearby, and it was overbearingly so. It was trying to dominate everyone there, and Dumbledore could tell that the source wasn't even actively attempting to do so. From what he could see of the student body and most of his staff, it was working, too. Absently Dumbledore noted the quiet, distinctly canine whine that poor Remus Lupin, the defence professor, released.

Albus could only imagine what it must have been like, as the poor man was fighting with his inner wolf trying to dominate him so close to the full moon, only to have a third party add even more stress as he had to fight _it_ off, too. Dumbledore could only imagine the three-way mental war of the wills.

In contrast to Lupin, however, Severus Snape had noticeable, to Dumbledore, relaxed upon feeling the powerful presence. From further scrutiny of the normally dour man, he noted an almost imperceptible smile on the normally sour face.

It made Dumbledore think that the source of the power was tainted with Dark Energies seeing as Severus was rather submerged in the Dark way of life and would appreciate the darker persuasion.

Almost as soon as Dumbledore entertained the thought, he dismissed it when he realised the power itself did not _feel_ Dark to him, but worryingly it did not feel particularly Light either.

Albus Dumbledore spent the majority of that lunch period considering then dismissing possibilities of what the power source could be. Nearing the end, Dumbledore resolved to have a chat with both Severus Snape and Rubeus Hagrid for their council. At least, from what he _could_ tell, the power source didn't appear to be malicious in nature, despite the danger it represented.

Suddenly the power was absent, and Dumbledore was honest with himself enough to admit that he was left cold, and… wanting.

All that was on Dumbledore's mind after that fateful midday meal was, "What in the name of Merlin is in my school?"

* * *

 **A/N: I thought it was a while since I had updated, so I decided to add one. I hope you all like it, and please do Review, as it is like chapter fuel. Until next time, take care!**


	14. Chapter 13: Complacency Kills

**Chapter 13: Complacency Kills Part 1**

* * *

Harry had been curious, which was the reason he was there.

He knew of the charges _finally_ pressed against his "family," which he was grateful for, but it led to a curiosity of his that would not have been sated any other way nor was it to be ignored.

Harry's curiosity was stemmed from where he was to go when the school year was over, as surely he could not go back to the Dursley's based on the fact that his dear old Aunt and Uncle were awaiting trial in the State's custody. Thus, Harry had neglected to place his name amongst those that elected to stay at the castle.

He had been requested to speak with his head of house, and a conversation regarding the topic had arisen. His professor had started, while being seated comfortably behind her teacher's desk, "Please have a seat, Mr Potter." When Harry had taken her up on her offer, she had continued, "I couldn't help but notice that you hadn't signed the list of students staying at the school. Would you care to tell me why?"

Now, Harry respected the woman before him above all others, and it was because of this that he did not answer along the lines of, "Do you question every student that doesn't stay at the castle, or is it just me?" Instead, Harry had offered, "It's safer that way."

Minerva McGonagall was quite obviously - to Harry - not expecting that answer, despite the fact that her expression did not change from that of innocent curiosity. "Would you care to explain further, Mr Potter?" She asked when it was clear Harry was not going to continue.

"Well, you see, I've been thinking about this whole Black issue, and I thought that I'd be best to not be at Hogwarts for Christmas. I thought that since there wouldn't be as many potential witnesses wandering the halls, that since everyone and their mother knows that I always stay at Hogwarts for the Hols and that since the literal trained killer that is after me knows where I sleep as he had been in Gryffindor too, that the castle's security is seriously compromised until the holidays are over or Black is captured.

"Now, if I unexpectedly leave Hogwarts for the Hols, then all of those disadvantages disappear, don't they?"

Minerva nodded thoughtfully, but then worriedly asked of Harry, "You're only thirteen! Where will you go? You can't possibly be going to your relative's!"

Harry allowed himself a smirk, "That's secret, Ma'am, and the fewer people that know a secret, the safer it is."

Professor McGonagall narrowed her eyes at Harry scrutiny, but nodded nonetheless, "True, Mr Potter, very true." Then, with a sigh, she said, "I cannot stop you, but I do urge you to be very careful, wherever you go."

Harry had rightfully taken that as a dismissal and had left her office, ending the meet.

* * *

Thus, Harry now found himself in Diagon Alley, but more specifically Gringotts. He had business to attend to, and one normally accomplished such a task with money. Either that or with objects that could be traded for money; Harry had both.

Harry approached a particular teller that, to him, appeared to be bored out of his mind despite the ferocious rake his quill scratched across a parchment. The bank was surprisingly slow, with few people despite it being the day that the kids were released from school. Perhaps they simply wished to settle in before commencing a mad dash for last-minute Christmas shopping.

Rudely, before Harry had even gotten even with the counter, the goblin snarled, "What do you want?"

Harry smirked and thought, 'well he _did_ ask,' before he replied, "All of the gold in Gringotts, now that I have found a family."

The goblin's attention snapped from the parchment to Harry at the reply said in an entirely too innocent tone. "You dare threaten Gringotts, human?!"

"Wow, that's insulting. I wasn't threatening your bank, but because you felt the need to question what was clearly only an honest answer to a ridiculous question, now I am threatening _you_. If you do not adhere to my demands, without question, I will kill you. Or, better yet, I will enslave you. If you cannot understand basic decency, perhaps you will understand force.

"I demand every knut, sickle, galleon, and _all_ of my possessions withdrawn from this bank. If you do not give me what is mine, I will take everything of yours in compensation for you attempted thievery."

By that time the bank was cleared of customers as the witches and wizards did not wish to witness a confrontation, especially as it was fairly late at night and they just wanted to be home and in bed. It also helped that no-one had yet recognised Harry for who he was yet, as he had obscured his visage the muggle way.

"You and what army, puny human?" The bank teller questioned.

Harry had gained more than his ability to multitask from the completion of his animagus transformation. He had been able to integrate an enhanced, inhuman strength into his body from when he was training his muscles up with the Founders' guidance. From this, he was able to jump the few metres onto the bank counter. It was impressive, Harry knew, as he doubted any standard human would be able to pull off the feat.

Quickly, Harry grabbed the smaller-than-him goblin and slammed its head onto the countertop. He held the struggling beast down with a foot as he both took a zenozerg out of a pocket and spoke, "You dared to question me, goblin, and I always keep my promises. You dared question me after I warned you not to, and now you shall be enslaved." Harry gently woke the zenozerg in the palm of his hand and placed it on the back of the struggling goblin's neck.

Throughout the process, the other goblins in the room looked on in equal parts shock, curiosity, and bloodlust. They _really_ wanted to find out what the human child was doing to the idiot that broke a verbal contract. The teller was yelling out, "Kill him! Kill him!" Over and over again, but the bystanders did not answer to him. Besides, most were of the mind that if he would not take out a simple human child, then he both did not deserve any respect as a goblin, and he was a stain on their species' honour that needed to be… dealt with.

What better way than to let the wronged human carry out their vendetta?

As soon as the zenozerg touched the goblin's neck, it started doing its job. The goblin then started outright _screeching_ in distress having felt the strange sensation of something burrowing into the back of his neck. It was the most painful experience that the teller had ever experienced, even counting the time where he had gone through the mandatory torture resistance training.

The teller could feel the odd, painful sensation of something crawling around underneath his leathery skin, and some migraine-inducing feelers spreading out underneath his skull.

Once Harry received the confirmation that the control was fully transferred from the goblin's own will over to the swarm, Harry let go. The goblin, to which Harry then knew was named Eyestomper III, immediately grabbed the dagger underneath the counter that was _just_ out of reach previously. Eyestomper III pointed the blade at the insolent human, but before he could strike, he was paralysed.

Harry chuckled in the disguised voice of his. Then, "I told you I always keep my promises unit Eyestomper III. Now, you _will_ do as I say, without question."

Harry force the goblin to say, "Very well, good sir." Harry knew just how furious the goblin was on the inside, and Harry took great joy in taming the, what Harry saw as, bully and turning him into a simpering "Upstanding Citizen."

It must be said that to Harry, the goblins were bullies, and he _really_ did not like bullies; he always wanted to put some bullies in their place. That was to say, beneath others for how they treated others. It wasn't like it would kill them to be kind.

The only proper use of rudeness was in response to rudeness, after all.

Harry then said, "Vaults one through seven, vault two hundred seventy, and vault six hundred eighty-seven are in my rightful possession and all are to be closed; I have no further desire to conduct business with Gringotts unless the PR improves drastically. You have two days to do this, after which time I will collect what is mine, plus interest owed to me. Be forewarned, Gringotts, I will be auditing all of it, and if things are missing… there will be hell to pay.

"That goes double for if my information is somehow 'leaked' to the public. If you do not hold up to your integrity of confidentiality, I will come back; I promise that I will have each any every being responsible found and summarily killed or enslaved for wronging me." Harry had dropped off of the counter and was pacing in the centre of the bank foyer by the time he had finished the monologue he had needed to say in order for the sake of clarity. Then, "You may now ask questions."

Immediately, Harry's newly made unit Eyestomper III had asked the question that he knew the mind of the unit wanted to know, "Would you like to magically test for the authentication of ownership of what you claim now or upon the collection of the items, sir?" Harry felt the irritants from the goblin at the polite way the question was asked.

"Oh, thank you unit, I think now would be best. I feel the need to remind everyone that pulling out a wand within the wall of Gringotts is legal in the case of magical oaths, seeing as I do not trust in your competence given recent events." After saying that short dialogue, and pulling out his wand for the reason stated, he continued, "I, Harry James Potter, so do solemnly swear that I have rightful ownership of the monetary wealth and objects I demanded returned to me this day from Gringotts bank, so mote it be."

There was a flash of raw immeasurable power, that which was standard for a powerful being binding them to an oath. Unlike what the rumours might have said, the power did not manifest itself in any visibly discernable way and instead was much like that of what the students and staff at Hogwarts felt every time Harry changed into his Amon form. That time, Harry did not feel the change just the same as he had not felt it at Hogwarts.

The oath would have been taken as true simply by the way that Harry did not die from a magical backlash, that which would happen every time a magical being swore a false oath or broke a sworn oath. However, the almost tangible feeling of the power surge sent out after the oath was sworn added another significant boost to Harry's credibility.

Harry lowered his wand and put it away, turned, and made his way to the exit. He said as he walked, "Do remember what I said about my identity being leaked about this transaction. Besides, I believe it will be in your best interests to keep the fact that 'the boy-who-lived' did not trust the goblins with his money." Those present made a mental note of the way the newly, to them, identified figure said: "the boy-who-lived" with venom.

With all that was said it was understandable that it took a moment for the goblins to comprehend what had just happened, despite their vaunted intelligence and cunning, and so the only sound that permeated the room was that of the main door closing when Harry left the bank.

If Harry had accomplished anything in that interaction, it was gaining respect from the goblins by showing them some of his power and prowess, without a silly wand.

* * *

He was most definitely not expecting the sight he was met with when Harry returned to retrieve his items. It was two days later, on the date that Harry had set the deadline for the goblins to bring all of his items to the surface in his massive withdrawal. It was during the interim that Harry thought of the best way to further the image that he had been working on to present to the goblin nations.

Harry had decided on using his swarm. He had been fairly unsettled when Eyestomper III had asked after his army, and the hivemind helped him realise that it was from the way that the goblin nation thought themselves powerful enough to overcome him; after all, he was seemingly only one enemy against an entire nation. No matter how powerful he appeared to them, if he appeared to be alone in his endeavours they might not take him as a serious threat.

There normally was not any fear of a fluffy bunny, despite its large teeth.

Thus, Harry had decided to take three overlords, one with a contingent of drones, another with a contingent of military units, and a third that was completely empty to be filled with the items. Harry himself had opted out of accompanying his swarm, and instead was enjoying a nice hot cocoa with his new friend William, with a contingent of many a "disguised" bodyguards and his parents Diana and Charles hovering just on the side of noticeable.

Of course, any sane person would do the same seeing as Harry had literally fallen out of the sky onto poor eleven-year-old William.

* * *

Harry had been trying something fairly dangerous, but it seemed fairly fun at the time. Harry had been training his skills in running away from people and things in a city or crowded setting. It was called "Parkour or freerunning," or so said the hivememory when it was discovered within the subcategory of "Terran movement."

Harry had been insanely curious about the methodology of what the hivemind had been able to discern about the human physiology through observation and limited testing of its exposure level. It had mixed what it observed with some fractured memories about skilled enemies it had encountered that were so troublesome that the details of these enemies had been entered into the swarm's very base code. It had detailed information about the manoeuvrability of the enemies and how they had used this to their advantage in combat to attacks.

These enemies of the swarm were terran, though, and thus Harry had dubbed it worthwhile to train himself in this newfound discipline to enhance his chances in any dangerous situation. He had already been training as much as he could while he was at Hogwarts based off of the examples he had. He had decided to put what he had committed to muscle memory to use in other environments so as to not be caught off guard if he were to be, say, attacked in an unfamiliar environment.

It was fairly dangerous, but Harry had reasoned that it was a worth it in the relatively safe situation of his application of skill so as to gain an edge when it was considerably less safe.

His enhancements from his animagus transformation helped a lot in what he was attempting, for example being able to jump impossible heights or scramble over ledges at insane speeds. He really could move if he wanted to, and he wanted to _push_ himself as if the hounds of hell itself were after him. Needless to say, he was moving so quickly that he doubted a zergling, his quick and light attack unit, would be able to keep up.

The best part was that since it was within a city, and where the terrain was moving, it was doubtful that one of Europe's top seekers with a top of the line broom would be able to keep up.

Long story short, and Harry had found himself slipping off of a very cold, slickened roof because some _idiot_ decided to scream out, "He's going to jump!" He was just about to jump, too, when they did it. Thus, Harry had been distracted on his landing after his jump and had not managed to land properly and gain a proper hold. He had ended up slipping off.

He had twisted on the way down, to both: check to see if he was going to hit anyone or thing, and to best not be harmed by or to harm when he landed. There had been a boy below him, but luckily Harry had been situated at such an angle where he was able to successfully grab the boy in his drop and roll so as to limit possible harm to either him or the boy. A yell of, "William!" Was shouted by a few people simultaneously while Harry had landed on the newly identified boy.

When they stopped, Harry had looked at the boy and had immediately asked, "Are you alright?" While he asked, he had also checked the boy over visually for any wounds and his pulse. His heart was beating rapidly, which was understandable considering the circumstances, but Harry had noticed a gash on his victim's hand. After he had seen the gash on William's hand, Harry had immediately gone for the grey knapsack he had on his back and brought out a few medical supplies for just that situation.

Harry had never been harmed by being prepared before.

Without so much as a by-your-leave, and before the obviously frantic familial figures, Harry had already had the small wound cleaned and bandaged. He doubted that William had even noticed that anything had happened, as the boy was still staring at him in wide-eyed shocked surprise in the face.

Thankfully, the only wound William had gained was on the gash on the hand, as the coat he had been wearing had been enough to break the fall and provide some form of armour for the rolling they had done. Again, Harry asked, "Are you okay?"

The boy nodded right as Harry had been yanked backwards by a suited man that looked nothing like the boy he had just had a tumble with. Not family, then. Thus, Harry responded to the perceived threat and blatant lack of manners with some force; Harry had the embarrassed man knocked to the ground with some ease.

That was how Harry J Potter had met an eleven-year-old Prince William and his parents Princess Diana and Prince Charles.

* * *

Harry had frozen in his place, his ice-cream partway to his mouth, as he had suddenly needed all of his attention focused on one problem. That problem happened to be what was happening in Diagon Alley where his representatives were located. His three overlords had happened upon a scene that was cut straight from chaos. There were figures clad in black robes throwing hexes and curses without regard for what they hit, so long as it was not one of their own.

The screams rang out twice as potent to the sensitive detection capabilities of the overlords as they approached the bank named Gringotts for their business. Harry watched, unbidden as the spoonful of ice cream fell off of the spoon onto the table, but he paid it no mind. Instead, his mind was now solely focused on the remote destructive scene experienced through his swarm, and not on the innocent ice cream before him.

The screams were dampened in sound from the way the audio receptors were structured, but the potency of the screams, the _meaning_ of the screams were fairly pronounced in its resonation within Harry's core self. In this, Harry saw much needless death and careless mistreatment of human worth. However, he did not see just tragedy in the massacre, he saw an opportunity. He saw this bloodbath as an opportunity to create a good first impression of them to the Wizarding World.

Harry gave the order for the swarm to engage the dark-clad wizards.

* * *

There was a very faint noise in the distance, but he ignored it as unimportant, instead focusing on the thrill he oh-so-missed in demonstrating his superiority over some _useless mudbloods_ that he could recognise. He laughed creepily which proved infectious as evident by the way his compatriots had carried the haunting tune like dutiful mockingbirds.

He had shot off a blood boiling hex at a register that proved slightly more than a nuance and had watched in fascination as its effects took hold, with a twisted smile hidden behind his mask.

Apparently, the sorry excuse of a man should have paid more attention to the whistling sound typical to that of when one rode a quick broom, as the man might not have been _on_ a broom, but it did denote the presence of a falling object at an intense speed. In fact, it was the only warning that such an object was headed on a trajectory that let such a falling object have his position as its landing zone.

The zergling that had been in a freefall from unloading from the overlord had gotten a nice cushy landing pad in the form of a tango then reduced to a mushy mess.

From that point onward, it did not take long for the dropped zerglings to recover from the shock of the drop to viscously targeting every target outlined to them via a red hue in their vision, set by the sensory organs entrenched within the biology of the overlords themselves.

Whereas the zerglings had been dropped into a freefall skillfully targeting fleshy targets, the acrozergs on board had instead woven an emergency weave with the standard acromantula silk into a facsimile of a parachute. Thus, when the acrozergs were released from the overlords' confines, they drifted at a manageable speed down to earth while still having the ability to "fire" some of their payloads of their magically enhanced silks.

It did not take long with the swarming capabilities of the zerglings and the accuracy of the acrozergs' shots to subdue the threat presented to the denizens of Diagon Alley. That was not to say anything of the losses that the swarm suffered, however. Indeed, half of the units that had been deployed to assist the innocent wizards had perished either fully or to a degree.

When the battle was over via what the swarm identified as Death Eaters employing a tactical retreat, the swarm's overlord that carried the drones lowered itself from the cloud cover to release some of the said drones. The other empty overlords followed the first, and when the drones were released from the confines of their overlord, they had immediately started gathering the broken bodies of their kin, some of their enemies' corpses, and some headed off to the closed doors of Gringotts Bank.

While the injured units of the swarm had burrowed underneath the ground to recover, the dead had been gathered around the overlords themselves. When they were brought close enough to the transportation units, the overlords' dangling tendril-like limbs grabbed ahold of the corpses and soon-to-be cadavers in order to properly bring them into themselves as cargo.

Throughout all of it, Harry had been the one orchestrating the swarm's units to best utilise their talents, as well as conducting the gathering of the items from within Gringotts Bank. His sense of humour had been tickled when he noted the irritated disposition of the goblins when they realised that a delegation was sent to the goblins instead of Harry himself, with a note.

Surprisingly there was no physical form of conflict with the goblins when Harry's drones had collected the items and had then proceeded to load the _very_ secure trunks into the awaiting overlord.

The recovering burrowed units were left where they were when the newly filled overlords left for the closest well-defended hive to distribute the wealth amongst other hive clusters to protect the physical wealth.

* * *

After the demanding task completed to acceptable standards, he had refocused two-thirds of his total attention back to what they were before the hostile contacts. His eyes focused, and he saw a few concerned looks as well as a waving hand in front of his face. It was obvious that the people around his body had tried to gain his attention when he was otherwise occupied amongst the minds of the swarm units.

"Sorry," Harry grinned sheepishly, "I just spaced out there for a minute. Nothing to worry about."

Satisfied with Harry's answer, William had then changed the topic back to what they were questioning (see: interrogating) Harry about what he had been doing before he had fallen atop of poor William. It was plain to Harry that the boy was very interested, especially when he had excitedly demanded, "Tell us more of parkeror!"

Absentmindedly, Harry corrected, "Parkour," and then complied with the boy's demand.

* * *

 **A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this particularly long chapter, which I had decided to end there and break up into multiple chapters as it looked rather daunting already to continue with this chapter contained within one document.**

 **Please, do leave a review as it is rather effective economically conscious chapter fuel. Until next time, take care!**


	15. Chapter 14: Royal Interactions

**A/N: I think it prudent to say this before the following chapter: I intend no insult to the people that share a name with the characters in this story. Please note that this is to be taken as fiction, and you shouldn't take this as a reflection of reality.**

* * *

Chapter 14: Royal Interactions

* * *

Land is the most valuable resource in the world and so, too, is it the most powerful resource. Even magic came from the land, or so said the theory spouted by the founders' lectures. It was an interesting concept, and through the prompting of Harry's desire to protect his swarm, he felt it prudent to acquire more land. He already had a base within the main chamber of the Chamber of Secrets, as well as the base within the Forbidden Forest, but he thought that maybe it was a good idea to expand his influence to, at first the mainland, and then the other continents.

In fact, earlier, Harry had conscripted one of his cerabates to search the swarm's genetic materials for a way to discreetly transfer at least some drones and a contingent of protectors across the various bodies of water. However, through a sudden epiphany Harry had realised that he could just use an overlord. He might not be able to have them fly over the water due to a fear of detection, but that didn't mean they couldn't go underneath the water. Harry figured that, given they could live without oxygen from what he had seen from the hivememory, that they could withstand the lack of the nominal oxidiser.

The only question that remained was if they could withstand the pressure that water and the oceans represented. He figured that he would do a pressure test later on, when it mattered, but for the time being he was content with using the overlords. He directed a contingent of drones, acrozergs, and some zerglings into a formation of eight overlords. It was a lot of units, taken from different locations throughout the various hive clusters that Harry had set up, but at the same time, they weren't all headed in the same direction. Some were headed North-West to Iceland, North-East to Norway, South-South-West to Ireland, South-East to Germany, and South-South-East then passing through the English Channel then finally land in France. Of course, this was from the point of view from the area North around Inverness, otherwise commonly known as Hogwarts and Hogsmeade.

It would take some time for his orders to be carried out by his semi-sapient familiar, and in the meantime, Harry had amused himself with his newfound friend William.

* * *

After Harry had dealt with the small skirmish with the black-robed adversaries and some time had passed, Will had forgone asking his parents for permission, and had gone ahead and offered Harry to join the family in shopping.

Surprised, Harry had looked towards William's parents instead of answering immediately. Only when William's mother had nodded with a kind, warm smile, did Harry grin as he replied, "Sure, William!" His grin widened as he heard a faint groan from said boy. He knew that William did _not_ like to be called William because supposedly it was too much like he was in trouble or was at school. Harry did it because he wanted to be unique in calling his friend by his full name; if Luna did it, why couldn't he? Then again, did he really need a reason to want to do something?

Thus it was a cautious Harry Potter that had joined the trio of obviously high profile people along for their holiday shopping. Harry also took the looks of confusion that people shot him in stride, only ignoring them if they weren't being too obnoxious. If they happened to be glaring, well, it was relatively elementary for Harry to rudely gesture in their direction without anyone else noticing.

A particularly memorable instance of this hostility to Harry's supposed 'ruffian' look took place when a merchant in the upscale district thought him on his own:

It was during a lapse of conversation that found Harry spotting his untied shoelace. When he had taken a knee to fix the issue at hand, he absently noted William's family enter what was an obviously upscale haberdashery.

He had also briefly entertained the idea of Snape's reaction to hearing the moniker of a clothing shop coming out of a mouth other than his own.

With the issue of his laces fixed, Harry promptly returned to his normal height and continued on to follow them in, only to find himself barred entry by a glaring adult. "Pardon me, sir, but my friend William is inside," Harry tried calmly, wondering if discretion would be valorous that instance.

The man scoffed, "I doubt any of _my_ customers would ever consort with trash like _you_." Perhaps not, then.

Harry's eyebrows rose at the man's alienation, and spotting William, called out to him. Having heard his name being called, and recognising the absence of Harry's presence for the first time, looking in Harry's direction. "Harry! Why're you still outside?" he called back in apparent confusion. However, when the attention was called to the issue, William's parents had immediately recognised the root of the issues, and had immediately disregarded their plans of shopping there.

Harry was pleasantly surprised at the level of heat Diana's glare held when leveled at the man, on the way out of the store. Despite this, Harry had decided quickly that it wouldn't do to continue seeing the family in such a public setting.

It only took a _little_ bit of slippery wording and a few promises to call a hastily written number at a later date before Harry could leave the family's presence. Even then, Harry could clearly see the reluctant expressions for letting him run off, and the worry in their eyes.

Except for William; he had an odd feeling he would be seeing a lot more of his new friend later.

* * *

Harry's swarm was expanding rapidly, what with the way he had guided them to expand more in on the mainland, and then he had plans to have them expand farther into the other continents. He wanted it to be released all over the world.

However, that was not what this was about. That was not what he was focusing on at that moment. As he was following along with the real world around his main body, he was focusing on tailoring the bodies that he had designed for the Founders. The thought had come to him earlier on while he was at school, while he had overheard a conversation between his schoolmates regarding paying the teachers back for what they had done to educate them. It had been between two Hufflepuffs, but the point was still valid to Harry, seeing as the spectral founders hadn't any obligation to teach Harry all that they had. No, the founders had taken it upon themselves to teach young Harry and later Luna just out of boredom and kindness.

He wanted to repay them for the opportunity that they had given him.

When he had show the founders the bodies, almost completed, he had asked for their input so as to have them personalised via their specific needs. He had already personalised them as much as he could, but he had thought that they could come up with a few details that he cannot in regards to their specialties and needs. He was glad that he had asked, as they had been fountains of knowledge regarding what they needed, and more importantly why they needed it that way. Eventually, when the beta bodies had been tested, and then finalised, Harry had then created the final product, to be possessed by the founders' spirits.

It was an interesting sight to see for Harry, through the eyes of his swarm, as he watched the founders start to possess the bodies he had made for them, which were in essence their original bodies but infested with Zerg DNA. He watched, interestedly, as one, the founders each let their glowing essence seep into the seemingly lifeless terran vessels. Then, as one, the four bodies flew into the air, glowing each of their distinct aura colours before finally settling.

They opened their inhuman eyes while at the same time a tide of power was released for all in the castle to feel, other than those that were in their immediate presence. The Swarm was immune to such things, after all, and had no need to feel it. Since the founders were now, too, considered Swarm members, they too were immunised from such displays of power. It was supposedly to help shield the swarm against insurgents.

Regardless of the reason behind the immunity to the surge of power, it didn't change the fact that they were unable to feel when the rest of the castle's occupants felt such things. It was a security risk, one that they were unable to attend to.

They each grinned to each other, and then began to change from their "normal" or base form from the infested visage into a more humanoid form. They had figured, earlier on, that if Harry could have a zerg as a animagus form, then it would make sense that they could have a human as an animagus form considering that they were capable of the transformation. The theory proved true in the form of them gaining their human features again.

Now, now it was time for them to explore the world once again. It was about time, too, considering that they had been effectively trapped in a dungeon for eons. In fact, so starved for intellectual substance as they were, it was the main reason for them to basically submit themselves as familiars to the boy they had taken under their own wings. Now, more than that, it was also the fact that in doing so it would transfer all of their cumulative knowledge into the hivememory due to their indoctrination into the swarm, which spelled some dubiousness later on based upon the danger that the knowledge posed.

However, they were desperate junkies in need of their next fix. Only instead of depending on remedial potions to avoid everyday life, they were after that same everyday slice of life that addicts tended to wish to avoid.

Despite their motivations for joining the Swarm, the fact of the matter was that they had. Now, that gave Harry a very interesting option. He had the option now to know more than what Hogwarts could teach him, and he need only reconnect to the hivememory in the same way as he had once before for a massive data transfer. That was to say, he needed to turn into his animagus once again so as to complete it efficiently. However, that was for later considering that Harry was decidedly not able to gain the necessary privacy in order to do so.

Yet, anyway.

* * *

 **A/N: Now, I had written this** _ **awhile**_ **ago, but somehow I had been reluctant to post it for some reason that escapes me right now. Maybe I had thought that it wasn't long enough? Whatever the reason, I hoped you enjoyed the latest installment of APCA, however short it may still be.**


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